We have eyeballed the basics of Modi's development strategy for Gujarat. Now we have an opportunity to do the same for the smaller state of Haryana which has about one-fifth of Gujarat's land area, two-fifths of its population and 1.6 times its population density. Haryana is somewhere between Goa and Gujarat on the size dimension. Here we will pick up some threads which seem surprisingly common to the previous discussion of Gujarat but the aim will be to provide pointers, inserted in [.], for Goa's development strategy. This is from an interview given to BUSINESS STANDARD by the Haryana CM (Congress?).
1. The importance of electricity: For 40 years of the state's existence, Haryana had managed to generate some 1,400 Mw of power. [Goa's electricity supply is of the order of 400-500 MW, almost all of it 'imported'.] Top priority is being given to invest in power production and generate at least 5,000 Mw immediately. Today, work on at least five major power projects is on and by 2010-11, Haryana would not only be able to meet its projected demand of 8,000 Mw but would also have surplus energy. 2. Attention to agriculture: It has surpassed Punjab in wheat production and even its milk production has gone up. Haryana is a rich state today. The state's minimum wages at Rs 3,510 per month are the highest in the country. [What is Goa's?] Haryana's per capita income has increased in last two years. 3. Industrial investment: In the last two years, Haryana has received an investment of Rs 28,000 crore, while projects worth around Rs 68,000 crore are in the pipeline. This is excluding the SEZs. 4. Fiscal responsibility: It has the top rank in FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) in the country today. Tax compliance has gone up and also the revenue. This has enabled it to invest in improving the lot of its people. This year's state budget would be of about Rs 5,500 crore as against Rs 2,200 crore two years ago. 5. Roads: 135 km Kundli-Palwal express highway is under construction [Goa's expressway may be of similar length. Its future is uncertain]. 6. SEZs: Out of some 90-odd applications for setting up special economic zones in Haryana, the Union ministry of commerce has already cleared some 60 proposals. **Haryana will also have three largest SEZs in the country**, being set up by Reliance Industries, Unitech and DLF. [No talk, as in Goa, of SEZs being foreign territories]. Some 200,000 jobs would be created for Haryana people in the SEZs [Compare this to the 8 or 9 lakhs bandied about freely in Goa]. The 'sweat equity' that the Haryana government would be entitled to from the SEZs in 10 years would fetch it Rs 35,000 crore. [In Goa the only talk is about how the state would be deprived of all tax revenue. Where is the disconnect with Haryana regarding this?] 7. SEZ land policy: A policy decision is taken to not have SEZ and development projects on more than 1 per cent land area of the state. [For Goa this would mean a maximum of 37 sq kms or 37 million sq m. How does the actual total compare?] . SEZs are a viewed as win-win situation for the Haryana farmers. They get market rates for their land, get an assured yearly return for 33 years and the provisions of jobs in the SEZs. The development the SEZs bring is also a tempting proposition. All-round development of infrastructure around the SEZs means the farmer can access markets easily and get better money for his produce. 8. Employability: Haryana's biggest worry today is how to make Haryanvis employable. The SEZs would create well-paying jobs but are youth skilled enough to take up most of these jobs? Hence the focus is to improve the quality of education and already provisions of reservations for poor children have been made in the education city that Haryana is planning in Kundli. Noticing the high dropout rates of scheduled caste students, a cash incentive scheme has been introduced to retain them in the schools. All this shows that development strategy, per se, is nothing exotic (though in Goa it's a Herculean challenge just speaking the 'language' properly and holding wavering attention spans). What we discovered that Gujarat's Modi may have done was to simply cook up "dirty tricks" based on them to win the Gujarat elections.
