DATELINE GUWAHATI/Wasbir Hussain
Money flows, NE does not grow!
Money literally flows into the North-east, and yet the region does not grow.
Can you believe that during the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007), the Centre
had allocated a whopping Rs 80,500 crore for development of the north-eastern
states? If you choose to be polite and wont like to ask as to where has the
money gone, you and I can well ask where is the development. Well, where have
I got this fantastic piece of statistics? That New Delhi had provided Rs 80,500
crore to the region during the past five years was stated in a newspaper
interview by Prof Atul Sarma, Steering Committee Member for the NE region set
up by the Planning Commission for, you know what, the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
Well, in the new Five-year Plan, the region could well get upwards of Rs
100,000 crore!
Lets take a look at some of the indicators of development (or the lack of it)
in the largest and most developed of the north-eastern states, Asom: Between
1960-61 and 1969-70 to 1970-71 and 1979-80, the Net State Domestic Product at
the all-India level grew from 3 to 3.6 (current prices-decades of sixties and
seventies). In the case of Asom, it fell from 4 to 3 during the period
mentioned above. Similarly, the Gross State Domestic Product between 1980-81
and 1990-91 to 1993-94 and 1998-99 at the all-India level grew from 5.6 to 6.8.
Again, in Asom, it fell from 3.6 to 2.7 during the same period. These are
figures from the Planning Commission, the same agency that allocates funds to
be spent by our law makers and the obliging bureaucracy, many of whom know only
too well that they are not above board in their dealings.
Now, look at the extent of people below poverty line (BPL): At the all-India
level, the percentage of people below poverty line was 54.88 in 1973-74. This
has, as it should, declined to 51.32 per cent in 1977-78, 44.48 per cent in
1983, 38.86 in 1987-88, 35.97 in 1993-94 and 26.10 in 1999-2000. Again, things
have to be different in Asom. It has not always been declining. The percentage
of BPL people in Asom has even increased in between! As much as 51.21 per cent
of the people in Asom were those below poverty line in 1973-74. This, in fact,
rose to 57.15 per cent in 1977-78, coming down to 40.47 in 1983 and 36.21 in
1987-88. But, in 1993-94, the BPL population in Asom grew to 40.86 per cent,
again coming down to 36.09 per cent in 1999-2000. All said and done, there is
nothing to cheer about on this front.
The power scenario, or more specifically, the per capita consumption of power
in a state goes to reflect a lot on the economic progress or development of the
place. Lets look at the all-India per capita consumption of electricity (in
KwH) over the years: in 1974-75, it was 174.9 KwH, and this rose to 354.75 KwH
in 1999-2000. In Asom, it was 24 in 1974-75 and this saw an increase to just
95.5 in 1999-2000, the same figure as that of Tripura! Look at the figure for
Orissa, not known anytime as an industrially advanced state: in 1974-75, its
per capital electricity consumption (in KwH) was 69.2 and in 1999-2000, it rose
to 354.6.
The Eleventh Finance Commission had devised an infrastructure index for the
year 1999. This index brings out a composite comparative profile of the
availability of physical, social and institutional infrastructure in the
states. Asom ranked 9th in the decreasing order, only marginally above
Nagaland. Amongst all the states existing in 1999, Goa had the highest index
for infrastructure. This means that Goa was the best-placed State in terms of
infrastructure facilities. The other States with a high infrastructure index
were Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana. Arunachal Pradesh, as also most of
the other north-eastern states, had the lowest Index.
To add to this gloomy scenario is the dismal social sector spending in the
north-eastern region. In the expenditure on the health sector, for instance,
Meghalaya recorded the highest fall: from 15.34 per cent of the total
allocation in 1981-82 to 7.22 per cent in 1997-98. This being the case, the
question arises as to what will the states do with the money that it gets in
the Eleventh Five Year Plan, that too close to Rs 100,000 crore, if not more!
The North-east actually does not have the capacity to absorb such huge amounts
of money. The region is weak in infrastructure, there is no accountability in
governance and the underground economy of terror eats into the developmental
funds. Moreover, project planning is simply dismal in the states with babus,
many with no interest in the region whatsoever, entrusted with the task of
preparing project reports for the people. The result: projects which are not
implementable or projects which do not yield the desired results.
The best thing for the Centre to do, as an experiment, is to set up a Financial
Accountability Commission (Prakash Karat can head this Commission for the
greater interest of the nation), with powers over the whole of the region and
disband such agencies (which are white elephants and nothing more) like the
North Eastern Council and even that thing called DoNER (Department for
Development of North Eastern Region). Mani Shankar Aiyar is a veteran and can
be accommodated in another ministry!
(The Sentinel,03.11.2007)
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