The recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission in 1955 created considerable disturbances within the Congress ranks in Punjab. Kairon hoped that if progress continued at the same pace it might be possible for Punjab to match the economic prosperity of Europe in about three years. 401 far outstripping the growth of income in India as a whole. In the next five years, those were also the first five years of Kairon’s chief ministership, the per capita income increased more than 20% to Rs. 331 in 1955-56, an increase of just over 3%. 321 in 1952-53 when the first elected government was formed in Punjab the per capita income increased to Rs. The per capita income of the state indicated the growth of Punjab under the Kairon style of development. The processes that Kairon began of state-sponsored consolidation of land, construction of access roads and electrification would ultimately enable Punjab to emerge as the state that fed the nation single-handed. He piloted various land reforms acts that empowered the actual cultivator. These in turn would enable Kairon to initiate the process of his dreams: to convert Punjab from being a mere supplier of military canon-fodder to the nation to an industrial and economic power-house.įirst as a minister and later as Chief Minister, Kairon did wonders for laying the foundation of modern agriculture in Punjab. Kairon in turn bargained for important portfolios like irrigation, development, forest, revenue, agriculture and veterinary. As Sachar and Bhargava toppled each other’s ministries in quick succession they needed help from Kairon. While Gopi Chand Bhargava and Bhim Sen Sachar led their own factions, Kairon carved a place for himself as a go-getter minister who could be relied to deliver on important tasks. Each jockeying for positions of power, for pelf was yet not the main accompaniment of power. On the eve of Independence Punjab had a surfeit of leaders. Bureaucrats, political colleagues and many others recalled being at the receiving end of Kairon’s ire. Procedures were meant to help decision-making rather than hamper them and if someone stood in the way, so much the worse for them. Efficiency mattered, malfeasance was frowned upon. Kairon was well known for not tolerating any nonsense and did not hesitate in calling a spade a shovel if that could get work done. Kairon’s world was one in which industrialisation and science were the devices for moving forward. Not for him the support to a laughable prohibition or the lamentable support to khadi in a country that was one of the larger producers and exporters of textiles in the world. He was not one to accept that paraphernalia of sighs and aspirations which often masqueraded as policy in the newly independent nation. Partap Singh KaironPartap Singh Kairon cut through the humbug of politics and morality of India after Independence. The death anniversary of this builder of modern Punjab falls today ( February 6.) A no-nonsense administrator, he did not let procedures come in the way. Deepening Your Personal Relationship with the GuruĪ Chief Minister of Punjab for more than eight consecutive years, Partap Singh Kairon turned Punjab into an economic powerhouse.
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