<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!>
This is one face of India's poor Political /Economic strategic planning. Is
it Bright or Dark?
"NE" is India's Leaky Reservoir. Keep pouring-and NE will demand even more.And
NE will do nothing to help India grow. NE does not know how to !
Delhi'sPlanning Process has been only to get Easy Loot. But is India achieving
that?.I think not!
I told /wrote to MMS in PCG#1 " Set us free-we will help you become a great
nation-which you deserve to be.All your most able bodied 250,000 can go home
and help develop India."
India's brilliant Economists and Management Whiz Kids should reasess this
process of going on filling this bottomless Leaky Reservoir. And what do MP's
and brilliants like Chidambaram,Karat say? Maybe like this:
' Let us Go on pouring - do not expect anything from that 2%--let us keep
flogging the 98% and concentrate all wealth with Mukesh Ambani-so that he can
present his Darling Wife with an Airbus Plane all furbished with many
Hamams----' ???
mm
I went to hear/comment at the DONER/NEC/ National Institute of Public Finance
and Policy-.There was no scope to comment.--" time short-please write your
feedback to--------"
mm
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 00:20:50 +0000From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
[Assam] Money flows, NE does not grow! (The Sentinel,03.11.2007)
DATELINE GUWAHATI/Wasbir HussainMoney 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 won’t 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!Let’s 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. Let’s 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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