Governance deficit syndrome in Orissa

Expressbuzz, Jan 13, 2011
Sachi Satpathy
At the 53rd meeting of National Development Council at New Delhi on May 29, 2007, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “Orissa has set a target for providing assured irrigation to 35 per cent of agricultural land in all the blocks during the 11th Plan period. Moreover, there should be additional funding under AIBP (Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme) to augment irrigation infrastructure in the state”. However, the state government could neither achieve the said target nor keep away the sanctioned money from corrupt hands.


In its report for 2009, the CAG mentioned that by March 2009, only nine out of 33 projects under AIBP assistance were in the completion stage, leading to a cost overrun of `3,537.26 crore and time overrun of two to 12 years. The CAG in another evaluation report, which was tabled in Parliament on May 7, 2010, voiced serious concern over the slow progress of the irrigation projects for farmers in Orissa and mentioned that while the union government provided assistance and loan to the tune of `1,835 crore in the last 10 years to the Orissa government, the irrigation department, which is handled by the CM, could utilise only `370 crore. The track record of departments handled by the CM — whether it is water resources (massive corruption and inaction), forest and environment, works (identified as the most corrupt department in the state) or general administration (poor human resource utilisation and no action against the erring officials) — says a lot about the governance deficit syndrome in the state administration.

The plight of farmers in Orissa can be assessed from the National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) consumer expenditure survey (2007-08), which found that the monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE) for the rural farmer household is the lowest for Orissa (`559), whereas Kerala (`1,383), Punjab (`1,273) and Haryana (`1,034) have the highest rural MPCE figures in the country. The poverty of farmers in Orissa is also clearly reflected in the number of farmer suicides in the last 11 years. According to the government of Orissa, a total of 3,509 farmers committed suicide during the last 11 years. The official record says that a total of 48,631 people committed suicide in Orissa between 1997 and 2008.

About 75 per cent of lift irrigation projects are defunct in the state. The other indicator such as electricity being used for agricultural activities has come down from 5.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent. The storage facilities for agricultural products are almost missing in the state, and farmers are not getting quality seeds on time.

The target of assured irrigation to at least 35 per cent of the total cultivated land is found to be ‘constant’ for the last 10 years. If at all there is any announcement on irrigation by the chief minister he keeps on saying “30-35 per cent of the total cultivated land”. The CM has reduced his number from 35 per cent to 30 per cent, recently, may be due to the reduction of cultivated land in the state over a period of time. When the target is the same for 10 years, the achievement must be a number between minus and a big zero. Added to that, there is a perception among the common people that “the present government generally comes up with the old official announcement in a new press release on repeated basis at certain time intervals”.

It is not only the paddy cultivators who suffer in the state; suicides by cotton cultivators are also increasing in the state. There are almost five lakh cotton growers in the state who are not getting any concrete support from the government. Cotton cultivation is being taken up in most of the backward districts such as Bolangir, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Ganjam, Boudh, Nuapara, Koraput, Angul, Gajapati, and Dhenkanal. However, government’s apathy towards these farmers has forced them to commit suicide or leave cotton cultivation forever. Like paddy cultivators, who are facing distress sale, cotton growers are facing a lot of problems in marketing their produce. Without any government support at the district level, these distressed farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. So the plight of farmers has worsened due to continuous neglect and the recent crop damage due to rains has added to their woes. The farmers need continuous support from the government.

This is where Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has an edge over Naveen Patnaik. Patnaik is only talking about anti-corruption drive (but there has been no action on OHSDP scam, mining scam, Indira Awaz scam, coal scam, Vedanta university land scam) whereas Nitish has already started opening schools in property confiscated from corrupt officials. Nitish feels that he needs policy support, not money, from the Centre. In Orissa, the misguided CM has taken a wrong path and is wasting valuable time and mandate given to him by the people. Many policymakers believe that the ‘bottom up’ approach followed by Nitish Kumar (as against the ‘top down’ development approach of the present government in Orissa) will certainly become an accepted model for a poor state. Nitish rightly believes that his ‘bottom up’ approach will take care of micro problems, which ultimately helps to resolve the macro ones. Due to the governance deficit, Orissa, which is almost governed by the Orissa High Court, is going through the saga of the Lalu Prasad’s regime in Bihar that believed only in tall claims and no action.

sachisatpathy@yahoo.com