Grounds for concern

The Planning Commission,in a letter to the Punjab government,has expressed serious concern about the rapidly deteriorating situation regarding groundwater in Punjab,and asked the state to reconsider its policy of free power to farmers,which is contributing to over drawal of groundwater. These are unquestionably questions we should be asking. Of course,these questions are embedded in a larger set of issues the unreformed nature of electricity generation and distribution,the manner in which agricultural procurement is rigged against many farmers,the failure to spread the gains of the Green Revolution country-wide. Yet,as a shocking series of photographs released last year by NASA demonstrated,the depletion of groundwater across Indias north-west is a very real fact,and one for which we should prepare.

Just as during last years monsoon,which was particularly poor across the north-west,one could drive through Punjab and see everywhere the green and yellow of prosperous farms,one can almost every day in this land of free power see tubewells and pumps left running,with taps pouring out precious water. The two sights are not intimately connected. Ending free power will not cripple Punjabs agrarian economy,as some in Chandigarh would like to say. No,just as in our cities we must learn to stop expecting our utilities to come to us for free,so the cradle of the Green Revolution must learn to pay the full costs of its inputs.

There is a larger problem here: the perpetuation of the myth that a citizen is entitled to free services,that their government must give them something for nothing. Like everything else,water is a scarce resource. So is power. When both are treated as free,they will be overused an entire state that doesnt bother to turn off the tap. What Montek Singh Ahluwalia is interrogating is the sustainability of the everything-for-nothing attitude. And the answer is no,it must stop soon. The problem is that few enough in Indias north-west are willing to make the point as bluntly. Punjabs politics is as unreformed as its electricity distribution system. But,sometime soon,both will run up against the limits of their usefulness.