Amid the government’s bid to review its plethora of populist subsidies, former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had demanded fiscal emergency in Punjab, said subsidies cannot continue if the state is starved of resources.

“You can’t keep borrowing to give subsidies,” he said while addressing the mediapersons on Thursday afternoon. He said in the first two years, his government had to stop subsidy to the agriculture power sector as the government could not bear the burden. “ Once the fiscal health of the state improved, we restarted the subsidies,” he added.

Amarinder said though the state Finance Minister Manpreet Badal wants to do away with subsidies, he has no say in the matter. He has no moral courage to quit the party either, Amarinder added. He claimed that state securities of Rs 400 crore are being sold every month to run the state.

On PIMS
Amarinder said the government was overlooking the interest of the state by offering 54 acres of land on 99-years lease at a meager Rs 133 crore for the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Jalandhar. “The land, if sold today, will value over Rs 2,000 crore at current market value. The deal is questionable and was given to a single bidder. We’ll move the High Court if the CM does does not re-look the project,” he said.

On HPCL-Mittal oil refinery
Capt Amarinder, showing last week’s report in The Indian Express on the refinery, said the government was planning to give more concessions, which would cost the state about Rs 6,000 crore, to Mittal’s company at a time when the state was surviving on borrowings. “The project is good for the state, but the government is just a facilitator in the agreement. It is for the promoter company to take care of its fund flow,” he said.

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