Chandigarh: Trying to overcome its severe financial crisis, the Punjab government has sought to raise funds from widow homes and jails. The Gandhi Vanita Ashram for widows in Jalandhar and the state jails at Bathinda, Amritsar and Goindwal are just some of the dozen official real estate that the state government has mortgaged to raise a massive £210 million loan. The widow's home holds heritage value as Mahatma Gandhi once stayed there during his visits to the state.
A national paper acquired all mortgage deeds signed between Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) that has chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as chairman and five nationalised banks. From lands meant for multiplexes to old district courts, jails and residential complexes each in Amritsar, Bathinda and Muktsar, there is nearly every type of establishment that has been mortgaged. According to a deed signed on December 31, 2013, the ashram's offices, entire 80-feet wide road and pavement and parking area have been mortgaged for £25 million. “The old building is already in a dilapidated condition,” said an inmate who works as a tailor and 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 £10 million loan from Andhra Bank at an interest rate of 10.25% annually. The money is to be repaid before March 2018. Another £40 million have 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 instead of raising loans against the unused land. PUDA officials have dubbed 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 commercial plots yet to be sold to public, have been mortgaged for Rs 750 crore loan with Canara Bank.
