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Journalism of Courage
IT was the quintessential poor brother, an object of both pity and condescension. But not any longer. Haryana, the less-fortunate sibling of prosperous Punjab, has finally turned the tables, leaving big brother way behind.
Consider Haryana8217;s brand equity. It8217;s a reforms showcase, moving successfully from an agriculture-based economy to one oriented towards manufacturing and services. It8217;s second only to IT powerhouse Karnatata in software exports and beats Punjab in per capita income, growth in secondary/manufacturing sectors and trade. True, social indices still leave a lot to be desired, but a slew of welfare schemes is in place to ensure human development follows the economy upward curve.
The ubiquitous sign of Haryana-in-a-hurry is the computer. The PC is a way of life in Jatland, recently adjudged 8216;Best E-Governed State Young8217; by the Computer Society of India. At the Panchkula district headquarters, all records are a click away: land and revenue receipts, pensions, passports, driving licences, or vehicle registration. The same holds true for all district HQs, which are also interlinked by satellite.
The reforms percolate into rural Haryana. At the cattle town of Barwala, this reporter met Netarpal, looking straight into a webcam to register a plot land he has bought, even as a friendly buffalo peered in through a window. It could have been anywhere in Haryana.
IT Secretary Harbaksh Singh attributes the phenomenon to the state8217;s IT policy, under which it contracted Reliance Infocomm to link 56 towns with fibre-optic cables four years ago.
8216;8216;The aim is to usher in a culture of efficient e-governance and make it a way of life,8217;8217; says Singh, who made sure that all government employees, right from new recruits to those on retirement row, took a capsule course in computers.
Every year, the department draws up an IT action plan laying down tangible goals. Scientists from the National Informatics Centre tailor software to meet these needs. The programs are then vetted for their practicability before being implemented.
E-GOVERNANCE is only one way the state has tightened up its act. Born virtually bankrupt on November 1, 1966, Haryana is now in the pink of financial health. State Finance Minister Sampat Singh discusses his recent meeting with big boss P Chidambaram with evident relish. 8216;8216;He surprised me by turning to the other state finance ministers and inviting them to do the same emulate Haryana.8217;8217;
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The backbencher has finally become the leader. Haryana was the first 8212; and still is the only state 8212; to impose Value Added Tax VAT. Implemented last year, VAT helped Haryana record a net rise of over Rs 552 crore in its revenue earnings. Other states have promised to follow suit by April next year.
VAT may be a new phenomenon, but more compelling is the fact that the state has not overdrawn from the RBI even once over the past four years. The credit, say officers, goes to the efficient revenue system.
8216;8216;What we collected in the last five years Rs 19,674 crore was more than what all the previous governments got in 32 years, between 1966 and 1998 Rs 16,966 crore,8217;8217; Sampat Singh says. 8216;8216;Although Punjab has higher SDP, it has lower revenue receipts.8217;8217;
Part of the secret is the discovery of the cash-rich services sector just ahead of the rest of the country. The ITES boom in Gurgaon is too well-documented to need repetition, but the true extent sinks in only when Harbaksh Singh says the export revenue from this sector shot up from Rs 400 crore in 2002 to Rs 6,000 crore in November 2003.
R K Khullar, deputy principal secretary to Chief Minister O P Chautala, attributes it to the state8217;s proximity to the national capital. 8216;8216;We8217;ve really milked the location factor,8217;8217; he admits, before detailing his government8217;s designs on Panipat and Faridabad. 8216;8216;The big builders have bought land there, soon we8217;ll have multiplexes and malls there as well.8217;8217;
HARYANA seems to have learnt, though, from Delhi8217;s experience. While eager to copy-paste the Gurgaon template elsewhere in the state, it is seriously rejigging its countryscape with the Samanvit Gram Vikas Yojna. 8216;8216;The aim is planned development of a village. The urban facilities will ensure villagers don8217;t rush to the cities,8217;8217; explains Karnal Deputy Commissioner R S Doon.
This isn8217;t just quotable bureaucratese. In Uchana village in Karnal, sarpanch Satya Pal Singh says the Haryana Urban Development Agency HUDA has already carved out 140 plots for the villagers. The agency will also provide sewerage, water supply and other modern amenities. 8216;8216;Now our children have stopped talking about moving to the city,8217;8217; says Satya Pal.
The village, incidentally, has no Jats, Chautala8217;s own community, which he is accused all too often of favouring.
Villages in general have come in for a lot of attention under the CM8217;s sarkar aap ke dwaar scheme. Most panchayats have been given lump sums for basic amenities like a pucca phirni circular road, preferably built with long-life concrete blocks, janj ghar community hall and classrooms built under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, a Central scheme.
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Umri village in Kurukshetra district has all of seven janj ghars for its 5,000-strong population. Devi Dutt Kaushik, the swarthy husband of sarpanch Santosh, puts the panchayat8217;s savings at Rs 1.8 crore. 8216;8216;We got it after HUDA acquired some shamlat land,8217;8217; he says, 8216;8216;but the panchayat can use only the interest, not the principal.8217;8217;
A little deeper into the countryside, and the lush green fields seem to be in total dissonance with the meagre rainfall the region has received. Despite the water shortage, Haryana continues to be the top exporter of Basmati rice. Once starved of foodgrain, today it8217;s among the largest contributors to the central grain pool, second only to Punjab, with its production zooming up from 47.7 lakh tonnes in 1971 to 123.36 lakh tonnes in 2003.
ALONGSIDE the economy, social welfare schemes are a priority area. Pioneer of the old-age pension scheme in 1987, Haryana8217;s latest is the Devi Rakshak scheme, which provides an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh to one earning member of every family in the state in case of unnatural death.
Sohan Lal Phulley, senior divisional manager of National Insurance at Karnal, marvels at the way the government is making use of the premium of Rs 4 crore. 8216;8216;In Karnal district alone, the company has disbursed Rs 70 lakh in six months,8217;8217; he says.
The beneficiaries include Nirmala Devi of Jhanjhari village, whose husband, a security guard, was knocked down by a car last October. She got a cheque of Rs 1 lakh within a fortnight of submitting the death certificate. 8216;8216;It was a godsend,8217;8217; says the mother of three who has put the money in an FD.
Then there is Devi Rupak scheme, aimed at two birds: population and female foeticide. Under this, a couple who adopts family planning methods after a girl child born at least two years of marriage gets Rs 500 a month for 20 years, and if they stop after a second son or daughter, then it8217;s Rs 200 for 10 years.
An insider says the CM is all set to jack up the sum on I-Day. It could go a long well in righting the sex ratio 861 females to 1000 males, marginally short of Punjab8217;s 874 females and literacy levels 68.59 per cent to Punjab8217;s 69.95 per cent.
SAROOP Krishen, the first chief secretary of the state, attributes this penchant for clocking firsts to the state8217;s need to prove itself. 8216;8216;The state had more scope for development, for it had faced a lot of neglect before its birth. We tried to make the most of what we had.8217;8217;
GT Road tourism, which it introduced a decade ago, is an example. Says Navraj Sandhu, MD, Tourism Development Corporation, 8216;8216;We didn8217;t have nature8217;s bounty, so we wooed travellers with comfort, economy and shopping.8217;8217;
Now, she8217;s busy developing farm and golf tourism. 8216;8216;Both are a big hit with NRIs,8217;8217; she says.
Coming back to the GT Road, it8217;s much smoother and safer now 8212; a highway patrol is in place 8212; than it was a couple of years ago. 8216;8216;We8217;re also overhauling our fleet of buses, 2,500 of the 3,500 buses have already ben replaced,8217;8217; the FM says, inviting all comers to hop on for that out-of-India feel.
THE feeling returns with a dekko at the state8217;s sports policy. Flush with funds, it gives Rs 1 crore for every gold medal at the Olympics, Rs 50 lakh for a silver and Rs 25 lakh for a bronze. K Malleshwari, the Andhra-born weightlifter married to a Haryanvi, instantly got her cheque when she bagged a bronze at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. There are at least five women hockey players who8217;ve earned Rs 30 lakh.
The state is also proud of the Haryana cadre IAS officers positioned strategically in the Central pool. Following former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu8217;s example during the NDA regime, Haryana today has 35 bureaucrats on Central deputation 8212; including Chattar Singh in the PMO and M Shankar in Rural Development 8212; 14 more than Punjab. It keeps the state clued in to Delhi moodswings.
Chautala, unsurprisingly, attributes the state8217;s rise to its people, especially the peasantry, and the visionary policies of his father, the late Chaudhary Devi Lal, former state chief minister. 8216;8216;I am confident that by pursuing his ideals, we will not only make Haryana No 1 in the country, but a name to reckon with in the world as well,8217;8217; he says.
Before that though, it has to take care of a few black spots. The all-round prosperity has missed the Meo region. And though the FM is happy to parade the 50,000 government jobs this regime has provided in the last four years, detractors say only the Jats from the CM8217;s belt have benefited.
The Opposition has also been crying foul about the strong-arm tactics of the CM and his sons Ajay and Abhey, who bit the dust in the Lok Sabha elections along with all other INLD candidates. Party circles are already apprehending a near-repeat in the Assembly polls later this year.
But the FM is quick to brush away the grime. 8216;8216;Look at the brighter side,8217;8217; he says. Sure.
The tables turn
Haryana8217;s high coincides with a plateauing of Punjab8217;s plus points
CONTRARY to the popular perception about Punjab, half the landholdings in the state measures less than three hectares, the size of the average farmhouse. And only seven per cent, 8216;8216;large farmers8217;8217;, own 10 hectares. The very modest size of landholdings ensures there are no starvation deaths in the state, but they lead to little agricultural surplus.
Punjab is full of such surprises. In 1995, a study conducted by H S Shergill estimated the accumulated debt of Punjab farmers at Rs 5,750 crore. Today, the figure probably stands around Rs 10,000 crore. No wonder, then, that farmer suicides led the government to announce a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each debt-driven death.
Simultaneously, earnings 8212; enjoying a sustained increase through the 1960s-70s 8212; have plateaued. The state saw a mere Rs 6 increase in per capita income in 2002-03; the average increase at the end of the 1990s was Rs 500. The per capita income rose from Rs 15,210 to Rs 15,216, according to the state economic survey, a rise of a mere 0.04 per cent.
Job opportunities, too, have started receding. If the private and public sectors accounted for 8.47 lakh jobs in 2001, it came down to 7.99 lakh by end-2003. In two years, more than 47,000 jobs were lost.
To top it all, the state suffers from bad fiscal management. 8216;8216;Non-development expenditure accounts for three-fourths of the state expenditure,8217;8217; says M R Aggarwal, professor of economics in Panjab University. Market loans at higher rates of interest pave the way to a debt trap.
Even as political compulsions cause the state to flout Disinvestment Commission recommendations and industry gives Punjab the wide berth, agriculture emerges yet again as the mainstay. But cropping intensity 8212; 137 per cent in 1999 8212; simply cannot go up any further. Productivity per hectare of net area sown crossed the 300 mark in 1999, and has since then declined every year.
With incomes from agriculture tapering, jobs moving out of the state, and little new industrial activity, Punjab is sitting on a powder keg. The state is used to a rich consumptive lifestyle, and aspirations levels even in remotest of corners are unreasonably high. A little more unease, and the situation could go out of hand.
