Punjab
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PUNJAB
The source of this section
INDIA 2012
A REFERENCE ANNUAL
Compiled by
RESEARCH, REFERENCE AND TRAINING DIVISION
PUBLICATIONS DIVISION
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Facts
Area : 50,362 sq km
Population : 2,77,04,236
Capital : Chandigarh
Principal Language : Punjabi
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
Ancient Punjab formed part of the vast Indo-Iranian region. In later years it saw the rise and fall of the Mauryas, Bactrians, Greeks, Sakas, Kushans and Guptas. Medieval Punjab saw a supremacy of the Muslims. Ghaznavi was followed by the Ghoris, the Slaves, the Khiljis, the Tughlaks, the Lodhis and the Mughals. Fifteenth and sixteenth centuries marked a period of watershed in the history of Punjab.
Through teachings of Guru Nanak, Bhakti movement received a great impetus. Sikhism began as a socio-religious movement, which was more interested in fighting evils in religion and society. It was Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, who transformed the Sikhs into the Khalsa. They rose to challenge tyranny and after centuries of servitude, established a humane Punjabi Raj based on secularism and patriotism.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, in the words of a Persian writer, changed Punjab from Madam Kada to Bagh-Bahist (from the abode of sorrow to the garden of paradise). But soon after his death the entire edifice collapsed due to internal intrigues and British machinations. After two abortive Anglo-Sikh wars, Punjab was finally annexed to the British Empire in 1849. The fight against the British rule had begun long before Mahatma Gandhi’s arrival on the scene. The revolt found expression through the movement of a revivalist or reformist character. First, it was the Namdhari sect, which believed in self-discipline and self-rule. Later, it was Lala Lajpat Rai who played a leading role in the Freedom Movement. Punjab was in the vanguard of India’s freedom struggle on all fronts in India and abroad. Punjab’s hardships did not end with Independence. It had to face the misery of partition with large-scale bloodshed and migration. Besides their rehabilitation, there was the task of reorganisation of the State.
Eight princely States of East Punjab were grouped together to form a single state called PEPSU—Patiala and the East Punjab States Union—with Patiala as its capital. PEPSU State was merged with Punjab in 1956. Later in 1966, Haryana was carved out of Punjab and during the same year the erstwhile capital of Punjab was shifted from Shimla to Chandigarh.
Situated in the north-western corner of the country, Punjab is bounded on the west by Pakistan, on the north by Jammu and Kashmir, on the north-east by Himachal Pradesh and on the south by Haryana and Rajasthan. There are 13 Members of Parliament from Punjab and 117 Members of Legislature are elected to form the State Government.
Agriculture
Punjab has accorded top priority to the development of Agriculture sector and has achieved about 3% growth in the first four years of the 11th Plan. Sustenance of cereal production and productivity is not only important for the State but also for the food security of the nation. The state has been consistently contributing about 45% of wheat and 25% of rice towards the central pool thereby ensuring the national food security. In the year 2010-11, the State produced 162 lakh MT paddy, out of which 129 lakh MT has been procured. Similarly, the State produced 152 lakh MT of wheat, out of which 108 lac MT has been procured. Only 10 districts of the State are covered under National Food Security Mission for wheat and no district of the State has been included under National Food Security Mission for rice even though state is its leading producer.
The State has 83% of its total geographical area (50.36 lakh hectare) under cultivation. The cropping intensity is around 189.69% with over 97% of the cultivable area being under assured irrigation. The State produces 19.50% of the country's wheat, 11% rice, 10.26% cotton and contributes significantly to the Central Pool with about 50% wheat and 40% rice. The paddy and wheat productivity in the State is 4022 kg/ha and 4462kg/ha against the national average of 2178 kg/ha and 2907 kg/ha respectively. Fertilizer consumption at 223.46 kg/ha. The State's farm economy is highly mechanized.
Rural Development
In its earnest endeavor towards rural transformation and rejuvenation. in State, government has adopted a two pronged strategy, empowerment of the Panchayati Raj Institutions through greater functional and financial autonomy and all round improvement of the rural habitats through the provision of basic amenities. Outlay for rural development has been increased by 148% i.e. from Rs. 209 crore in 2010-11 or Rs. 516 crore for 2011-12.
Irrigation
The total geographic area of the State is 50.36 lakh hectare, out of which about 41.74 lakh hectare area is under cultivation. After partition of the country in 1947, Indus Water Treaty of 1960 between India and Pakistan restricted India's right to usage to only three eastern rivers Satluj, Beas and Ravi. The State has three dams namely Bhakra Dam with storage capacity of 5.60 MAF constructed on River Satlaj, Pong Dam with storage capacity of 1.90 MAF and Ranjit Sagar Dam constructed on River Ravi.
At present the area under irrigation is 40.77 lakh hectares, which is 97.68% of the area under cultivation. The canal surface water distribution system consists of 14500 km of Canals/Distributaries covering six major systems in the State namely; Sirhind Canal system, Bhakra Main Line, Bist Doab Canal, Upper Bari Doab Canal, Sirhind Feeder and Eastern canal. Contrary to common perception only 27% of area is irrigated by canal surface water and the remaining 73% is irrigated by tubewells in Punjab. This has resulted in depletion of ground water table. As many as 112 out of 141 blocks have been categorized as over exploited or "dark blocks". The canal water and electricity are being provided free of cost to the farmers in the State.
Power
The present generation capacity of Punjab is 6900 MW including central share of 1940 MW, where as peak unrestricted demand is about 10435 MW. Thus there is shortfall of 34% of peak demand. The power demand is likely to go up to 11000 MW by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan.
Industry
New Industrial Policy, 2009 of Punjab has been implemented, under which special package of concessions has been provided for Information Technology of knowledge based industries, agro based industries and food processing industries. In order to promote the IT units, new schemes relating to reimbursement of stamp duty provision of capital subsidies etc. have been included in the Annual Plan 2011-12 with an outlay of Rs. 19 crore.
Transport
Roads : Public Works Department (Building and Roads) in the State has been responsible for construction of roads, bridges and buildings. The State has big network of 70528 km of roads comprising of 1749 km of national highways, 1462 km State highways, 2112 km major district roads, 4482 km of other district roads, 51059 km of rural link roads, 8130 km urban roads and 1534 km project roads.
The State Transport has a fleet of 6606 Buses consisting of Punjab Roadways (1568), PRTC (1089) and Private Operators (3949) covering 16,44,647 km in the State and 155034 km in other states per day providing services to the cities as well as rural areas and adjoining States-Haryana, Himachal Pradesh Rajasthan, J&K, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Union Territories of Chandigarh and Delhi.
Civil Aviation
The Department of Civil Aviation was set up in Punjab in the year 1962 with a view to make people of the State conversant with aviation and flying.
There are four Flying Clubs at Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar and Jalandhar. There is a domestic Airport at Chandigarh and Pathankot. An International Airport at Rajajasansi (Amritsar) and two Aerodromes at Patiala and Ludhiana (Sahnewal). Two Flying Clubs are coming up at Faridkot and Talwandi Sabo. To set up a green field International Airport near Macchiwara in Ludhiana at an estimated cost of Rs. 17,500 crore on PPP mode, MoU has already been signed between Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd. (BAPL) and PSIDC.
Tourism
The State has a large number of places of tourist interest some of which include Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, Jallianwala Bagh and the Wagah Border in Amritsar, Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib and Khalsa Heritage Complex at Anandpur Sahib, Bhakra Dam, Moti Bagh Palace and Chatibir Zoo at Patiala, Wetland at Harike Pattan, Sanghol (district Fatehgarh Sahib) and Roopnagar Archaeological Museum at Roopnagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Memorial at Village Khatkar Kalan, SBS Nagar for archaeological importance, Mughal Complex at Aam Khas Bagh Rauza Sharif of Sheikh Ahmed at Graves of Afghan Rulers at Sirhind and Sodal Temple at Jalandhar, commemorative of Maharishi Balmiki Heritage.
FAIRS AND FESTIVALS
Besides festivals of Dussehra, Diwali, Holi other important festivals/fairs/melas are Maghi Mela at Mukatsar in January, Rural Sports at Kila Raipur in February, Basant at Patiala in February, Holla Mohalla at Anandpur Sahib in March, Baisakhi at Talwandi Saboo in April, Urs at Rauza Sharif at Sirhind in August, Chappar Mela at Chappar in September, Skeikh Farid Agam Purb at Faridkot in September, Ram Tirath at Village Ram Tirath in November, Shaheedi Jor Mela at Sirhind in December, Harballah Sangeet Sammelan Baba Sodal at Jalandhar in December. In addition to above Fairs and Festivals three heritage festivals at Amritsar, Patiala and Kapurthala are also celebrated every year and are very popular among the tourists.
Government
Governor : Shri Shiva ji Patil
Chief Secretary : Shri Subodh Chandra Agrawal
Chief Minister : Sardar Prakash Singh Badal Jurisdiction of High Court: Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh
AREA, POPULATION AND HEADQUARTERS OF DISTRICTS
S. No. District Area (sq km) Population Headquarters (Provisional 2011)
1. Amritsar 2,647 24,90,891 Amritsar
2. Bhatinda 3,385 13,88,859 Bathinda
3. Barnala 1,410 5,96,294 Barnala
4. Fatehgarh Sahib 1,180 5,99,814 Fatehgarh Sahib
5. Faridkot 1,469 6,18,008 Faridkot
6. Firozpur 5,303 20,26,831 Firozpur
7. Gurdaspur 3,564 22,99,026 Gurdaspur
8. Hoshiarpur 3,365 15,82,793 Hoshiarpur
9. Jalandhar 2,632 21,81,753 Jalandhar
10. Kapurthala 1,632 8,17,668 Kapurthala
11. Ludhiana 3,767 34,87,882 Ludhiana
12. Mansa 2,171 7,68,808 Mansa
13. Moga 2,216 9,92,289 Moga
14. Patiala 3,218 18,92,282 Patiala
15. Roop Nagar 1,369 6,83,349 Roop Nagar
16. S.B.S. Nagar 1,267 6,14,362 S.B.S. Nagar
17. S.A.S. Nagar 1,093 9,86,147 S.A.S Nagar
18. Sri Muktsar Sahib 2,615 9,02,702 Sri Muktsar Sahib
19. Sangrur 3,610 16,54,408 Sangrur
20. Tarn Taran 2,449 11,20,070 TarnTaran
Economy
Growth rate
See graphic, 'Punjab, economic and demographic indicators'
State debt burden
Subodh Varma, Jan 28 2017: The Times of India
The ebb and flow of electoral tides has thrown together a bunch of five widely different states that together go for Assembly polls in the coming weeks. Yet here's a strange thing: all of them have a state debt problem, the most serious being that of Punjab.
The total debt of the Punjab state was a staggering Rs 1.25 lakh cr as estimated in their last year's budget. Every resident of this rich state has a debt of Rs 38,536 hanging over his or her head.
Punjab's interest payments are steadily rising, having zoomed up by 58% since 2011-12 to reach Rs 9,900 crore in 2015-16. Nearly one fifth of the total revenue (earnings) of the state government are now going towards repaying the debt. Although Goa, another poll bound state and Kerala have bigger debt overhangs per person, these two states have understandable problems.In Goa, the biggest source of income in recent years, mining, collapsed after massive violations of law were found. Kerala, with declining agriculture and low industrialisation too, faces chronic financial difficulties.
But what's happened to Punjab, the granary of India, once so advanced in both agriculture and industry? Its state government has been borrowing heavily from various sources to run itself. Data collated by the Reserve Bank shows that its annual debt is running at a 32.4% of the gross state domestic product, the value of the total output of the state in 2015. As per finance commission decisions in the past, a state with more than 20% debt to GSDP ratio should be considered `debt stressed'. This is the second highest in India, topped only by the chronically troubled West Bengal. Uttar Pradesh, another poll bound state has a debt to GSDP ratio not far behind Punjab's at 30.5%.
There is an unseemly scramble in the state for somehow raising cash. Re ports earlier this year said that the government mortgaged assets like jails and Gandhian institutions to raise cash. The government has also been borrowing from the Reserve Bank under a special provision called ways and means advances -but it has to pay an additional 2% penalty for it. Last year, 30 banks led by SBI stopped lending to the state government because foodgrain worth Rs 20,000 cr it bought using such loans had gone missing as per reports.
All this has dire consequences for the state's residents. Faced with a fiscal crisis, the state is putting the brakes on meaningful spending on key sectors. Agriculture is in crisis because of stagnating yields and declining returns to farmers.
Between 2011 and 2015, agricultural growth was a mere 0.4% per year. It needs a rejuvenation through new technology and new strategies. This means more investment from the state. But that is not forthcoming. Health and education are suffering similarly . Inflation-adjusted data for development expenditure shows a virtual standstill even as population grows and services stagnate.
The future is bleak because the Centre can't help much. Its hands are tied as regulations restrain it from offering grant in aid if the state is not a high revenue deficit one.
2013-15: Mortgaging properties to support subsidies, state schemes
The Times of India, Dec 09 2015
Rohan Dua
Indiana ZONES - Punjab goes bust. Mortgages jails, widows ashram, asylum land, residential complexes
The last place from where you expect a state government to raise funds is jails and a shelter for widows.But that is precisely what the Punjab government has done in the past two years to tide over its severe financial crisis.
The Gandhi Vanita Ashram for widows in Jalandhar and the state jails at Bathinda, Amritsar and Goindwal are among the dozen official properties that the state government has mortgaged to raise a massive loan of Rs 2,100 crore to fill up its depleted coffers.
The widows' home has heritage value, as Mahatma Gandhi once stayed here while on a visit to Punjab. It was built in 1947, after Independence, for the widows among Partition refugees.
Documents from Punjab's urban development department and chief minister's office reveal that the government mortgaged the properties between 2013 and 2015 to support its subsidies and state schemes. The Akali Dal-BJP government is facing a debt of Rs 1.25 lakh crore, and has found it tough to even pay salaries to its staff. All the mortgage deeds signed between the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) -chaired by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal -and five nationalised banks have been accessed by TOI.
From lands meant for multiplexes and old district courts, to jails and residential complexes -the government has mortgaged nearly every type of establishment.
Gandhi Vanita Ashram, which houses 120 widows and a small school that educates 250 girls, sits at the top of the list. As many as 67 families live at the ashram. The staff and women are yet to be rehabilitated to the new complex being built for them.
According to the deed signed on December 31, 2013, the ashram's entire property -including offices, the pavement and parking area -have been mortgaged for Rs 250 crore. “The old building is already in a dilapidated condition,“ said an inmate who works as a tailor, adding that she feels very uncertain about her future.
The documents also show that 3.73 acres reserved for a multiplex by Amritsar Improvement Trust has been mortgaged for a Rs 100-crore loan from Andhra Bank at an interest rate of 10.25% annually . The money is to be repaid before March 2018.
Another Rs 400 crore has been raised against 11.28 acres on which Amritsar's old mental hospital stands.
While the 350-bed hospital has already been shifted to a new site, the doctors insist that the government should have simply extended the building's area instead of raising loans against the unused land. One doctor told TOI that they desperately need more beds to manage the rush.
Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, who holds the housing and urban develop ment portfolio, was not avail able for comment. PUDA offi cials meanwhile dub the mortgaging as routine. The burgeoning interest on the loans has not deterred them “It is an economic model by which we can get money and use it for the right purposes We are trying to find ways to settle the fund crunch. We are paying back interest and not stopping the instalments to banks,“ said Manvesh Sidhu chief administrator, PUDA.
Besides, three residential sites, each in Jagraon, Mansa and Patiala, with nearly 3,000 residential and 400 commer cial plots yet to be sold to pub lic, have been mortgaged for Rs 750 crore loan with Canara Bank. In Jalandhar, the gov ernment has also mortgaged two more state offices includ ing an old building that until few years ago housed the dep uty commissioner and senior superintendent of police.
Historic links between France and Punjab honoured
Daily Excelsior , Historic links between France and Punjab honoured "Daily Excelsior" 20/7/2015
Historic and cultural ties between Punjab and France, especially the contribution of officials in the French army to the empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh warrior who ruled the first Sikh kingdom are now witnessing a renewed interest.
At a recent function at the French Embassy here eminent people recalled the connect of cities like Kapurthala, known for its European architecture and Lahore, the erstwhile capital of Ranjit Singh’s empire with France.
The French East India Company arrived in India in 1667 and set up the first trading post in Surat.
Tracing the European nation’s well known connections in Puducherry and other former French trading posts, the Ambassador of France Francois Richier recalled his country’s presence in North India also.
Richier gave the example of General Jean-Francois Allard, who was born in Saint-Tropez in France and entered the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and later married a Hindu princess.
The French ambassador said he hoped that the French tourist coming to India should surely visit Punjab and discover the unique ties.
“Heritage issues can foster the relation between both the countries. I would want that the French tourist will go to Punjab and discover the connection between both the countries,” Richier said.
Copies of 19th century portraits of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, General Allard and his wife – the originals of which are preserved in French collections – were also displayed at the event.
General Allard served the Maharaja from 1822 till his death in 1839, travelling extensively to various cities of the country including Kashmir, Kolkata. He married the Princess of Chamba Bannu Pan Dei, with whom he had seven children.
Henri Prevost-Allard, Deputy Mayor of Saint-Tropez and a descendant of General Allard, presented the memoirs of his grandfather along with the cooperation projects linking his city to India.
He also expressed the desire to build a statue of the Maharaja, General Allard and his wife in Saint Topez.
Bobby Singh Bansal, a British author of “The Lion’s Firanghis: Europeans at the Court of Lahore”, which charts the careers of former soldiers and mercenaries of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to Punjab and who conducted research on Sikh heritage and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the French officials trained the Sikh army and matched them to the European standards.
“The bond between the French and Maharaja Ranjit Singh was very unique. It was General Allard and General Ventura who were the first to arrive in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and within five weeks of their arrival, the entire Sikh army was transformed to the European standards,” Bansal said. (PTI)
