The Pioneer, June 16, 2009
Unlike during election, mapping geographical area needs to be considered seriously for any sort of development like roads, bridges, railways, number of schools and hospitals. Otherwise, large parts of the region having relatively low population density would remain inaccessible due to lack of sufficient Budget provisions compared to their sizes. This is well reflected in the regional imbalance found between the Coastal Border Orissa (CBO) — having direct access to sea, and Western Border Orissa (WBO) — the interior region largely bordering central India.
Historically, all over the world, and especially in India, coastal belt has always been economically sound relative to interior region probably due to the importance of sea trade and because of opportunities the sea gives for human settlements. Orissa is no different case.
Moreover, population, higher literacy rate, political power in ruling Government such as CM and his coterie, and the number of elected members such as MPs and MLAs give additional advantage to the CBO as compared to the rest of Orissa.
To bring prosperity to the multi-faceted backward region of the undivided Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput (KBK) districts in Orissa, the Union Government of India had formulated KBK project in early 1990s in the form of Long Term Action Plan (LTAP), which was later modified as Revised Long Term Plan (RLTAP). Despite the fact that the proposed project has not yet achieved its goal completely, the Union Government of India has reduced the funding of RLTAP from Rs 250 crore to Rs 150 crore annually since past few years without considering the growing inflation of past decade — the decision alleged to be political. To compensate the deficiency, the Orissa Government similarly announced Biju KBK Yojana in 2006-07 for the region.
In another development, countering public dissatisfaction over regional imbalance in the western Orissa districts, the State Government had established Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) in 2001 with an aim to minimise regional imbalance at the State level.
Largely, budget allotted by the State Government for WODC and Biju KBK Yojana is invested in the form of infrastructure, education and health care development in those localities.
As per census, population in CBO is 2.4 times higher than that in KBK and 1.96 times higher than that in WODC regions, whereas the geographical area of CBO is 1.24 times smaller than that of KBK and 1.36 times smaller than that of WODC regions. Additionally, the literacy rate of WODC is 4.8 per cent lower than that of average of Orissa and 11.5 per cent lower than that of CBO. In case of KBK, literacy is 19.7 per cent lower than that of average of Orissa and 26.4 per cent lower than that of CBO.
Distress figures are also obtained while comparing WBO by including WODC, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Kandhamal districts together with that of average of Orissa or CBO. The literacy rate of WBO is 11 per cent and 18 per cent lower than that of Orissa and CBO respectively. Similarly geographical area of WBO is 2.24 times larger than that of CBO.
This means WBO needs 2.24 times higher investment in roads and 18 per cent higher investment in education, which may be around 10-20 per cent of the State Budget as additional funds.
More to it, the qualitative assessment (quantitative figures are not available) based on official map gives CBO advantage over WBO in length of State highways per every 1,000 km in Orissa. Unlike many other States, almost all the proposed Central Government sponsored national institutions or hospitals are being established in CBO, particularly in Bhubaneswar-Cuttack region, except one Central University in Koraput since past decade.
WBO has got only one State Government medical college and CBO has two. Apart from that not a single Government medical college was established in the WBO region in past decade whereas the State is proposing two more Government medical colleges in addition to an AIIMS-type hospital in CBO, widening the gap between CBO and WBO in secondary health sector further. The State Government too was in no mood to upgrade regional diagnostic centres located in the interior, backward and tribal belts of Kalahandi, Koraput, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj to Government medical colleges, the way the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar was done.
The total Budget for the State in the current financial year 2009-10 is estimated as Rs 35,000 crore where as budget allotted for Biju KBK Yojana (BKBKY) and WODC is only Rs 120 crore (0.34 %) and Rs 80 crore (0.23 %) respectively.
Unfortunately such budget allotment is always fixed without considering inflation and volume of the State budget.
With current rate of 0.57 per cent (0.34 % BKBKY + 0.23 % WODC) subsidiary budget it would take several decades, if not a century, to minimise regional difference between CBO and WBO.
To minimise regional imbalance in foreseen future, at least 5 -7 per cent of the State Budget should be pumped in WBO as subsidiary towards infrastructure development in roads, bridges, health and education in the region. This, of course, would bring employment and migration of educated people from CBO to other backward parts in the State making Orissa richer in its culture and encouraging regional tolerance.
A fraction of the budget of regional balance would not bring anything in near future other than political eyewash.
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