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Raja Amarinder Singh,
the new Congress(I) Chief Minister of Punjab, has excellent blue-blooded
credential for anti-people and traitorous policies. His forefathers, as the
Maharajas of Patiala, were notorious as British chamchas, having even supported
the British in the suppression of the 1857 revolt. Living up to this tradition
the descendent, now CM, after taking power, and settling scores with his Akali
Dal rivals, pounced on the people. His budget was a pointer. He immediately
proposed cuts in the benefits of government servants. Even as this was being
resisted, by the employees holding demonstrations, he launched an attack on the
PSEB employees, which was even more vicious — a 25% cut in the salaries of the
Punjab State Electricity Board employees.
The reason for this
cut is given as the huge losses being faced by the Board. But, the reason for
this is not the employees but the massive corruption pervading the entire Punjab
government, whichever party is in power. There is corruption both in production
and in distribution. Due to the large-scale theft by industrialists and PSEB
officials, the PSEB is unable to pay its arrears to Coal India Ltd. and the
Railway authorities. To meet these arrears (Rs.80 crores and Rs.160 crores
respectively) Amarinder resorted to unprecedented measures.
In the last week of
June, the PSEB decided to surreptitiously cut Rs.12 crores from the salaries of
the 70,000 employees every month. Immediately as this circular was leaked out,
the PSEB headquarters at Patiala was gheraoed. Under pressure the PSEB promised
that it would not implement the circular. But, in June and July salaries were
cut — 10% the class IV employees and 25% the rest. When the PSEB employees
threatened to immediately go on strike from July 9th, Amarinder declared the use
of the dreaded ESMA against them. Instead of plugging the loopholes connected
with the production and distribution of electricity and recovering the dues from
the industrialists, the CM decided to punish the employees.
In spite of this
threat the demonstrations by the employees began to grow bigger and bigger. A
section of the Union leadership also filed a case in the High Court to quash the
PSEB order. The High Court ordered not to make any further cuts, but was silent
on the Rs.25 crores already cut. Later, the government announced that this would
not be returned to the employees but would be added to their Provident Fund.
This amounts to outright robbery of the employee’s money.
At present Punjab is
facing a severe power crisis. Today electricity cuts are staggering — 10 ½ hours
in the rural areas, and 7 to 10 hours in the urban areas. On the other hand,
with the failure of the monsoon the requirement for power has increased. While
on the other hand the output has drastically reduced due to water shortages.
Even coal supplies dwindled due to non-payment of dues.
The Union government
is pressurizing the Punjab government to take a World Bank loan to tide over the
crisis. It is also pressurizing the Punjab govt. to increase tariff rates. He
has declared that free electricity for agricultural purposes and to the
scheduled castes will be stopped. The Centre wants the Punjab govt. to do away
with this so that it can qualify for the World Bank loan.
The Congress(I) CM has immediately
obliged. On Aug.10, while in New York, he signed a massive $1 billion loan-deal
with the International Financial Consortium (a funding agency) for the funding
of various schemes. The conditionalities have been kept secret from public view.
No doubt with such a gigantic loan the privatisation of the PSEB and
retrenchment of employees will be speeded up.
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