Inclusion of Seemandhra in
the already existing Special Category States has turned into a rise in voices
of special category status to other states like Uttar-Pradesh, Odisha,
Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh, and, is resulting in major issue for
Planning Commission and policy-makers. It has stimulated big responses in the
political scene of Bihar. Bihar’s
Chief-Minister Nitish Kumar organized many rallies in Bihar and Delhi demanding special
category status for the region which played an important role in the recent
elections. On this issue Nitish Kumar also had support of the Bihar BJP wing. In
1969 Gadgil formula with its liberal view, created on the factors like
hilly-region, population base and pivotal international borders proposed to
include three north-eastern states – Jammu& Kashmir, Nagaland and Assam and
slowly the list expanded to include eleven states. Special category status
increases the availability of resources by changing Center-State responsibility
in Central programmes. Bihar
with a per-capita-income of Rs 13, 632 against the national average of Rs 35,
993 is not in the special category list. However, other states with higher
per-capita-capita like Sikkim
(Rs 48, ooo), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 48, ooo), Mizoram (Rs 37, ooo) and Tripura
(Rs 37, 000) are also included in the list, but the Center tries to maintain
that Bihar is not included in the list. According
to the Planning Commission deputy chairman “Bihar
does not meet the criteria of special category state, but some parts of it have
special problems and it does qualify for BRGF (Backward Regions Grant Fund).” the
Union Finance Commission’s criteria for the Tax Revenue Devolution indexed to
population, land-area and backwardness have already benefited the state. The
central government had formed a Committee under Raghuram Rajan last year to
come-up with indicators of backwardness to decide for equitable allocation of
the Center’s funds to states. The committee has acknowledged Odisha as the
least developed state, followed by Bihar and
Madhya Pradesh.
However, it is not only
important to acquire funds but it is equally important to decide for major
issues on which money should be spent for growth and development. However, Bihar’s record on effective usage of funds has been
negative.
According to Asian
Development Research Institute the migration of poor-household to other states
for work had been a trend but now the migrants comprise of all sections of the
society which shows that unemployment is not only a problem for poor but also
for others. Bihar is basically an agrarian
society where 81% of the population is dependent on agriculture for livelihood.
Inspite of the high-growth rate achieved by Bihar,
it is as much rural as ten-years ago and labour-force participation has been
10% less than the Indian average. In Bihar
agriculture has been the major sector which has occupied the major part of the
labor force. With so large workforce in agriculture Bihar’s
economy needs to divert it to industry and manufacturing to avoid stagnant per
capita income. Agriculture has depressed income and demand within the economy. Bihar needs to add value to the skills of its labor-force
so that it can improve their productivity and income.
The situation of power
availability in Bihar is also not very good, and, the separation of Jharkhand
from Bihar made many power generating units
fall in the new-region. The division also made Bihar
less privileged as far as mines and natural resources are concerned which
further reduced the region’s ability to generate its own electricity by coal.
At present Bihar is supported by National
Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Jharkhand electricity board for supply of
power but there is still a wide gap between demand and supply of power in the
region. Only 15% of the population has power-supply and 85% of the population
is still without electricity. Power shortage is major reason for the state’s
low manufacturing
base. Power generation and
electricity has a positive correlation with growth and development and if Bihar has to develop meaningfully it should invest more
in power generation.
Electricity and unemployment
are among the major issues during Nitish Kumar’s second term which deserved
special attention but the government efforts fall short of the expectations of
the people and received criticism…
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