People's Democracy

40 YEARS AGO

Economy Of Punjab And Kashmir Ravaged By War

THE destruction of economic life in the picturesque valley of Kashmir is beyond description. Destroyed paddy crops, wrecked orchards, burnt shops and houses have become a common sight throughout the region and the life of the people has become extremely miserable.

Tourist traffic in the alley has been a main valley. According to the Tourist Department, the valley must have lost something like Rs two crore in tourist business as a result of the war. All the 360 houseboats in the famous Dal Lake we without any customer.

Kashmir is industrially backward. Yet whatever industries were there, could not continue their production due to the war conditions. The shawl industry which employs over a lakh workers usually has a turnover of Rs two crore annually. Large number of units had to be closed down resulting in unemployment of the workers. The timber industry was also hit hard due to uncertainties in the forest areas.

Kashmir’s fruit trade is of the order of Rs ten crore annually. Thirty thousand cases of fruit which were on their way to Delhi were blocked in Jammu involving a loss of Rs one crore to the actual growers. Since fruit is a perishable product, the bigger men in the trade utilised the opportunity to fleece the growers. There are only three or four such big men monopolising the fruit trade of Kashmir. Even the director of horticulture in Kashmir, Ghulam Kader, admitted that handful business houses are “taking undue advantage of the present situation to deny a fair price to the growers.”

The refusal of moneylenders to give credit facilities to small-scale industry has adversely affected their position. With no alternative source of employment the workers had to face a great deal of privations. As a correspondent described, “where even normal peace is terrifying, trouble is almost inhuman.”

In the current year’s budget the government allocated Rs fifty lakh for roads, fisheries and agricultural development, but all this is suspended now. The tax revenue of the government is likely to go down by Rs 1.3 crore and irrigation levies and forest revenue by Rs 1.5 crore.

The total war losses of the civilian population in Kashmir is estimated to be about Rs seven crore.

In Punjab, the conditions are in no way better. Reviewing the industrial scene in the state The Economic Times observed.

“Batala and Amritsar are among the worst affected. The lot of the industries in Ludhiana and Jullundur is only slightly better. But almost all over Punjab businessmen are nursing the effects of the unilateral decision of certain commercial banks to suspend credit facilities and to determine their own brand of credit curbs which, as I have been able to discern, were probably the most cruel in india’s modern economic history.”

The paper further noted, “In Batala, which is a major centre of engineering industries, machine tools and foundries, about ninety per cent of the units had closed down during the crisis. The loss of production in Amritsar during the three weeks has probably been of the order of 80-90 per cent. In Ludhiana and Jullundur the losses probably range from 30 per cent to 40 per cent depending upon the type of industry.”

Thousands of workers were compelled to migrate in search of jobs elsewhere. The dislocation of economy hit the poor people very hard. A correspondent who visited Chheharta after the bombing describes, “I saw harrowing scene of shriveled up families huddled together amidst heaps of bricks and rubble, in remote corners of roofless, crumbling rooms or what was left of their rooms or so lid houses, all wailing for their lost ones.”

“Now, what happens to our finances?” asked the state finance minister when he was describing how the war completely upset the budgetary calculations. Possibility of new tax burdens in the next year’s budget is not ruled out.

Farmers are forced to sell their wheat and prices have gone down as a result of that. The hoarders are utilising it to purchase grain at cheap prices with the idea of selling it at higher prices with the idea of selling it at higher prices later.

The war damage of the civilian population has raised many problems of rehabilitation of the people. The democratic movement in the region is gradually coming forward to tackle this pressing problem.    

--- People’s Democracy, October 31, 1965