Government ridicules the Punjabi farmer by announcing a paltry Rs. 20 increase to the Minimum Support Price for 2009-10 over last year’s price

Some ‘Sikh’ Prime Minister of India!

National Geophysical Research Institute puts Punjab in ‘danger zone’ as it is drying up rapidly because of over use of underground water

November 11, 2009: Although a report last week in the HINDU newspaper spoke of wheat and atta (flour) shortage in Indian occupied Punjab (the granary of India) with the price of Atta shooting up by 20% just in the last week of October the prices the Punjabi (read Sikh) consumer is currently facing are zooming by the day thanks to the ‘Bania’ mafia. Meanwhile, (while non-riparian states of Rajasthan and Haryana, in cahoots with corrupt BBMB officials continues to steal extra water from Bhakra Dam which should have been used to replenish underground water in Punjab) the Hyderabad based National Geophysical Research Institute has declared Punjab a danger zone because of over exploitation of it’s groundwater which has lead to drastic depletion of water table in the state, prompting the scientists to call it a ‘danger zone’.

Flour mill owners, according to our sources in the Sikh Homeland, are currently paying (during the week ending November 8, 2009) over Rs. 1, 500 per quintal for importing Punjab-grown wheat, from greedy Banias in Delhi and U.P, which wheat was sold by Punjabi farmers for much less (Rs. 1, 080 per quintal under the Central government’s fraudulent Minimum Support Price – MSP – for wheat) a few weeks earlier. What the greedy mill owners are charging the Punjabi consumers today is another scandal.

Another Chandigarh dateline report, dated 3 November, 2009, published in the HINDU newspaper, headlined, “Punjab faces shortage of wheat; prices soar - Prices of wheat-based products up by 20 percent within last fortnight,” confirms the above report and paints a very grim picture when it says that, “Acute shortage of marketable wheat in Punjab, which is one of the largest producers of the winter crop, has led to sharp hike in prices of wheat-based products including wheat flour, bread, ‘maida’ (finely milled flour) by up to 20 per cent within last fortnight, forcing the consumers to cough up more to buy the same. In the past fifteen days, the rate of wheat flour has increased by 20 per cent to Rs. 17 per kg while ‘maida’ prices have gone up by Rs. 3 per kg to Rs.18 per kg, flour millers said. Within a span of just two months, bread manufactures have again raised the rates of bread by Rs. 1 to 2 per unit from November 1 onwards in view of astronomical rise in raw material prices. State flour mill owners and bread manufacturers have sought from Centre to release sufficient quantity of wheat in the market to rein in the spiraling prices otherwise wheat products would further see another jump in rates in coming days. Ironically, Punjab, which is the largest contributor of wheat to Central pool, does not have marketable surplus of wheat in the market, compelling flourmill owners and bread manufacturers to buy wheat from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. In 2008-09, Centre procured record wheat from Punjab at 107 lakh metric tonnes (MT) out of total produce of 157.33 lakh MT, which led to shortage of wheat in market, said traders.” The above HINDU report quoted Punjab Roller Flour Miller’s Association, President, Naresh Ghai, as saying that, ‘there is no wheat available in Punjab at present and we are buying wheat from Delhi and U.P. to cater to our requirements”.

The hard-pressed consumer, in Sikh-majority Punjab, was looking towards India’s Sikh Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government, in British-built New Delhi, for sympathy, empathy and succor to help Punjabis during the current roti-short (wheat-short) period till the new wheat crop is harvested in March/April 2010. But, what did the people of Sikh-majority Punjab get instead from the Sikh Prime Minister?

The Indian government, according to a New Delhi datelined report, by Vibha Sharma, headlined, “Rs 20 wheat MSP hike upsets farmers,” published in the Chandigarh-based Tribune newspaper, on November 6, ridiculed and insulted the inhabitants of Sikh Punjab. The Manmohan Singh government announced a paltry increase of Rs. 20 per quintal (yes only Rs. 20) from last years Minimum Support Price of Rs. 1, 080 per quintal. The Rs. 1, 100 Minimum Support Price has ridiculed and insulted the inhabitants of Sikh

This column’s constant reminder to the readers, over the years, that overuse of underground water (tubewells) and lavish ‘gift’ of Punjab’s river water to non-riparian Rajasthan and Haryana states, will make a desert out of Punjab, has been confirmed this week by none other then the scientists of the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute - NGRI. According to a report, by Suresh Dharur, in Monday’s (9 November) Tribune, headlined, “Falling water table puts Punjab in ‘danger zone’, Punjab, the land of rivers, is drying up rapidly. The report says that, the overexploitation of groundwater is leading to drastic depletion of water table in the Punjab, prompting the scientists to call it a ‘danger zone’. One L Suri Naidu, a research fellow at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), is quoted as saying that, “We have found that the water table (in the Punjab) has been depleting at the rate of 60 cm per year in the past two years. The groundwater exploitation has reached an alarming 110 per cent which means that more water is being used than what is being recharged.” In a first of its kind project in the country, the NGRI has developed an integrated, web-based Groundwater Information System (GWIS) for Punjab aimed at taking the information to the doorsteps of farmers and policy-makers. Under the pilot project, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the NGRI scientists have developed the data bank for Amritsar and Jalandhar districts, providing village-wise details of groundwater availability, its quality and sustainability and the extent of exploitation.

According to a respected and patriotic Sikh, a retired civil servant and expert on rivers water distribution, Sirdar Pritam Singh Kumedan, “Punjab incurred an expenditure of Rs 80,000 crore while supplying one crore acre feet of free canal water to Rajasthan besides depleting its own resources continuously for 40 years now. Besides the huge expenditure in supplying free water to Rajasthan, he says, the state has to extract this much extra ground water for its own use, affecting the fertility of its land. There are more than 13 lakh power and diesel-operated tube wells in Punjab that pump out about 2.50 crore acre feet of water every year. The electricity consumed by these tube wells annually is more than 1,000 crore units. The value of this electricity at Rs 2.50 per unit comes to about Rs 2,600 crore.

However, since Punjab purchases electricity from other states for Rs 7 to Rs 8 per unit, power used to energise these tube wells costs more than Rs 7,000 crore. Diesel-operated tube wells cost four to five times more. Owing to the shortage of electricity many farmers use generators as well. Even if the cost of power were taken to be Rs 5 per unit, 1,000 crore units of electricity would cost Rs 5,000 crore. Since Punjab is supplying one crore acre feet of canal water to Rajasthan every year, it has to use 400 crore units of electricity worth Rs 2,000 crore for extracting this much ground water.The total amount spent by Punjab for pumping out 40 crore acre feet of water during the past 40 years would thus come to Rs 80,000 crore.

The above academic NGRI ‘exercise’ sounds fine and dandy on paper but says nothing about how Punjab’s vital over-exploited underground water is going to be replenished. Sirdar Pritam Singh Kumedan, expert advice should be followed and Punjab MUST demand the Rs. 80, 000 crores non-riparian Rajasthan state owes Punjab. For legal and other details of the Sirdar Kumedan’s proposal readers are urged to read the Tribune of November 3, 2009, at: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091103/punjab.htm#

In the short term however, the best way would be to reduce the flow of water in the illegal Ravi Beas Link canal and dig small unlined canals, in strategic areas in Punjab, which unlined water channels will replenish the underground water with natural seepage. Haryana has embarked on a similar experiment recently with one canal. In order to do that, Punjab’s rulers will have to steel their spines. They will also have to be vigilant at the canal head works so that the crafty rulers of non-riparian states of Haryana and Rajasthan do not bribe corrupt officials of the BBMB to send more water than the ‘agreed’ amount, in canals heading towards these non-riparian states who have been stealing Punjab’s river water without paying a penny ,since 1947 , when the British Colonials quit the subcontinent.