Delivering his speech at the National Development Council (NDC) meet in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on Saturday Nitish thanked the Union government for forming an Inter-Ministerial Group on the issue of Special Category Status for Bihar. He hoped that this group would favorably look into the genuine concerns of state and extend all possible support for its development and growth.

He recalled how the Bihar Legislative Assembly passed a resolution in 2006, seeking Special Category State status. He further said that the per capita Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) through Central Investment has increased from Rs 2,059 in 2004-05 to Rs 4,144 in 2008-09 for India, though it has increased from a meagre Rs 376 in 2004-05 to Rs 396 in 2008-09 only, for Bihar.

Thus, the trend of low per capita central investment for Bihar, as compared to India, is not adequate for the state to catch up with the rest of the country in the near future. This issue needs to be taken up on priority basis. The per capita investment can only be enhanced at a higher pace in Bihar by according special category status, so that the state can attract adequate private investment. This would also help us generate optimum employment opportunity in the state.

Nitish regretted that the approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan, which includes many dimensions of development and growth, does not very well articulate some pertinent issues of the development of Bihar and its growth as raised during the Planning Commission Regional Consultation held in Bihar in May 2011.

He said despite the high growth rate, there is still a big gap between the growth of per capita income of
the state and national per capita income. Therefore, it is imperative that Bihar should aim at higher growth rate and to achieve the desired growth rate, the plan size must maintain a growth of 20% per annum.

The chief minister further complained that the tendency of creating entitlements through separate legislations cast enormous obligation on States which lacks availability of their resources. Illustratively, the state had demanded a funding pattern of 90:10 between Centre and state for implementing the Right to Education (RTE).

However it has been finally decided to be of 65:35 and thereby burdening the state with additional financial obligations. The legal obligations under this Act now have no relationship to the availability of State Finance. The Right to Food Security which is on the anvil will multiply these problems.

The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 is using multiple deprivation indicators collected in the survey for determining the entitlements that rural households will receive under various central government programs and schemes. Now it has been conceded that present statewise poverty estimates using the Planning Commission methodology will not be used to impose any ceiling on the number of households to be included in different governmental programs and schemes.

Another methodology is to be arrived at after consultations with states, experts and civil society organizations after the SECC-2011 is completed.

This methodology would also be consistent with the ensuing Food Security Bill. Since it is perceived that there would be different eligibility and entitlements for rural households in different schemes and programs, it is much more relevant now to place the identification exercise in the hands of BPL Commission, which will not only design, conduct and authenticate the SECC but also update, maintain and ensure public access of the data that has been collected.

Further, the methodology and criterion for the conduct of SECC in Urban area should be finalized on priority so that there is no ambiguity vis-a-vis the rural area.

Outlining the overriding negative feature of the draft of the Food Security Bill, he pointed out that the Central Government arrogates to itself power to decide the number, criteria and schemes under it, while unilaterally imposing a substantial financial burden on the State government. Though the proposed draft Bill, seeks to improve the performance of existing TDPS, with entitlements for vulnerable categories and provisions of food security, it passes on huge financial implications to the state governments. He reminded that it must be remembered that those states having a major incidence of poverty are the very States which are also facing an acute financial crunch. The proposed Bill should take stock of the varying ground realities

in states and make adequate financial provisions to meet the gaps in infrastructure, inadequacy of personnel and the capacity to implement.

Unless this is done the legal frame work to entitlements would create complications leading to blame-game and disillusionment with the system.

The Bihar chief minister suggested that instead of the stipulated TDPS reforms which is definitely time consuming, cost intensive and fraught with time overruns, the Bihar government is of the considered view that a system of cash transfers would be preferable. The potential advantages of cash transfers include lower leakages and minimum implementation cost, greater flexibility of households to choose their consumption baskets and portability for migrant populations.

Nitish raised the issue of power shortage in Bihar, which continue to negate our development efforts. “Our per capita consumption of 122 units is about 1/7th of national average of 778 units. Massive investments in power infrastructure and increased availability of power would be required for Bihar to reach the national average during the 12th Plan,” he added.

Presently, the availability of power from the central sector remains dismal around 900 MW though the power distribution capacity of Bihar has reached 3338 MW which is bound to increase further during the 12th Plan.

“Our power allocation from the central sector during 12th plan period needs to be increased substantially so that we reach the national average of per capita consumption of power,” he added.

The upcoming power project at Barauni Thermal Power Plant extension and the three power projects under Case-II bidding at Chousa (Buxar), Pirpainti (Bhagalpur) and Kajra (Lakhisarai) have not got coal linkage so far. Accelerated coal linkages for the outstanding proposals, removing restrictions for the establishment of ethanol based plants and encouraging the investment in renewable energy particularly solar and biomas during the 12th plan period will help in meeting the energy requirements and achieving national norms.

As per the 2001 Census, percentage of electrified rural households in Bihar was 5.13% of total rural households against the all India figure of 43.52%. This would mean that the State needs creation of much bigger rural infrastructure. The restriction imposed by the ceiling of Rs. 4 lakhs to 13 lakhs per village under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) is severely restricting theimplementation of this scheme. Further, installation of 16 KVA/25KVA transformers makes little or no sense in the State, given the number of consumers in the villages.It is impossible to provide connectivity to only a part and leave out the rest. This is resulting in improper connections leading to burnout of transformers, thereby defeating the very purpose of this prestigious scheme. We have also been requesting the Central Government for a three phase connection so that agriculture as well as small village enterprises can benefit from this scheme. A shift from village based connectivity to habitation based connectivity and complete coverage of the habitation under the RGGVY during the 12th plan period would be a practical approach in improving power distribution infrastructure.

The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. It was attended by many ministers of the Union Cabinet, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other higher officials. Many Chief Ministers, ministers and higher officials of other states also participated. Along with Bihar Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Shri Sushil Kr. Modi, Bihar Planning & Development Minister, Narendra Narayan Yadav, Development Commissioner, K C Saha, Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretary and coordination, Ravikant, Resident Commissioner, Bihar, Alok V Chaturvedi and Secretary to the CM, Chanchal Kumar were also present in the meeting.

Comment

comments...