Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government under chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, which regularly issues full page newspaper ads gloating about its achievements, is presently groaning under a huge debt pile of Rs 1 lakh crore. Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya said, when Chouhan took over as CM for the third time in November last year, the debt pile was Rs 90,000 crore, and it is increasing.
Though Malaiya says that the debt pile will reach Rs 1 lakh cr by fiscal year-end, the fact remains that it has already touched this figure. Because of mounting debts, the state finance department has put a brake on big payments. All departments have been directed to take prior permission from the finance department for projects worth over Rs 5 crore.
Already development work has been affected badly because of frequent exercise of electoral model code of conduct. At present the model code is in force in view of panchayat and local bodies polls.
The state government spokesman Kailash Vijayvargiya is nonchalant. He says, any government that has the capacity to repay does takes debts. At a state cabinet meeting this month, the seniormost minister Babulal Gaur asked the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to bring out a White Paper on state debts. There was silence at the meeting when Gaur put forth his demand.
In view of the debt pile, the state government has stayed release of matching grant for Cancer Research Centre in Jabalpur, proposal to give additional bonus to employees, upgrading infrastructure to boost tourism, and separation of feeder from transformers proposed by the energy department.
The Chouhan government has already taken seven big debts this year - Rs 1000 cr on May 27, Rs 350 cr on June 24, Rs 1000 cr on July 8, Rs 1000 cr on Sept 22 , Rs 1050 cr on Sept 23, Rs 750 cr on Nov 26 and Rs 1000 cr on Dec 19.
The main opposition Congress party has also demanded a White Paper on the precarious financial condition of the state government. In 2003 when the BJP came to power after Digivijay Singh's tenure, the state had a debt pile of Rs 35,000 cr, but this has grown several times in the last 11 years to Rs 1 lakh crore.
