Release of tube well connections from Dec - Prior to poll, Deputy CM had announced Sept deadline
Thursday, 08/05/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140508/punjab.htm#2
Patiala : In February this year, prior to the General Election, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal announced that applications for tube well connections, pending since 2007, would be cleared from September onwards. Subsequently, halqa (constituency) chiefs were asked to issue demand notes to farmers. Despite stiff opposition to this move by the state Congress, demand notes were issued to more than 90,000 applicants.
The Congress alleged that with an eye on the elections, the SAD-BJP Government had summoned the record on the demand notices at the PSPCL head office. It had then asked the halqa chiefs to issue these to farmers in their constituencies.
But with the government now facing an acute coal shortage for its thermal plants, the much-hyped scheme may be delayed, perhaps till the next paddy season.
Sources said the PSPCL was not in a position to release the tube well connections by September and the process would now commence after December, that too in a phased manner. The annual subsidy bill on account of these connections would be a whopping Rs 670 crore per annum, the sources said. About 70,000 farmers had applied for connections before 2007.
When contacted, PSPCL chief KD Chaudhri said they would start releasing the connections beginning December this year and the process would be completed by July 2015.
The All-India Power Engineers Federation patron, Padamjit Singh, said it was wrong on the part of the government to announce the release of tube well connections days ahead of the poll code. Also, the Green Tribunal had ruled that in view of the depleting groundwater table, releasing a large number of tube well connections was illogical, he added.
