After having been singed in the frying pan of politics, courtesy its recent electoral debacle in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party state government is now being slow-roasted over the fire of economic mess. As a result, it is looking up to Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other noted fiscal management experts in Delhi to pull it out from the worst ever fiscal distortions which have battered the economy of Punjab. This foodgrain bowl now leads the country not in per capita income but in per capita debt with the total debt of the state government growing rapidly from Rs 24,022 crore since the end of 1997-98 financial year.