Kelkar panel shifts emphasis from ‘backlog’ to ‘development gap’


* Proposes several concepts including Virtual Region for tribals, Green Bonus for areas that have protected forest cover, and recommends setting up Agricultural University at Sindewahi, railway connectivity to district headquarters of Yavatmal and Gadchiroli, Nagpur-Surat connectivity to benefit cotton belt
* Emphasises on time-bound completion of pending projects in Vidarbha
* Includes drought-prone tehsils, areas having ex-Malgujari tanks, and saline belt in planning process

By Kartik Lokhande 
Following the announcement that the much-awaited Kelkar Committee report on balanced regional development will be tabled during ongoing winter session of State Legislature, curiosity is building up over its content. Getting a peep into the report, ‘The Hitavada’ has learnt that the report has shifted the emphasis from ‘backlog’ to ‘development gap’. The committee has made certain important recommendations for Vidarbha and other regions, with an expectation that the Government will implement those by the year 2022.
State Government had constituted the high-powered committee over balanced regional development a couple of years ago. After various rounds of consultations in different regions and a couple of extensions, the committee submitted its report to the Government in October 2013. The erstwhile Congress-NCP Government shied away from tabling the report. The new BJP-Sena Government organised a presentation on the committee report, during one of its recent cabinet meetings. Later, the Government announced to table the report during winter session of State Legislature.
‘The Hitavada’ has gathered that the 571-page report has shifted the focus of the debate from the concept of ‘backlog’ to ‘development gap’. “Backlog is a single dimensional concept and it is more in financial and accounting terms. However, to achieve balanced regional development, we need to consider changes in economy and reforms in the past decades and change the context accordingly. Hence, we have talked about the development gap,” noted economist Dr Vijay Kelkar, who headed the committee, told ‘The Hitavada’. According to him, the concept of ‘development gap’ is multi-dimensional one. Emphasising on that, the committee has suggested a ‘comprehensive development strategy’ involving resource transfer on the basis of development distance.
Explaining the concept of development distance, a member of the committee Dr Vinayak S Deshpande said that development distance was a distance from a milestone of development reached by the State as a whole. It encompasses a lot many things including opportunities available to a region, assets created, utilisation of plan expenditure, per capita income etc. “We have tried to identify strength of various regions, on the basis of which development distance or development gap will be reduced,” said Dr Deshpande, who is currently Acting Vice-Chancellor of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU).
The committee has also discussed the debate whether to consider district or tehsil as unit for carrying out development strategy. While doing so, it considered the report of Ranganathan Committee on drought-prone tehsils, and some other reports. “We have considered drought-prone tehsils, ex-Malgujari tanks in East Vidarbha, and saline belt in West Vidarbha while making recommendations on planning process,” Dr Deshpande said. The tehsils were considered drought-prone on the basis of their featuring commonly in different reports, and also on parameters like water supply through tankers, ground water level, absorption level of soil, need for fodder camps for number of years etc.
Apart from philosophical emphasis on the concept of ‘development gap’ and recommending resource transfer on that basis, Kelkar Committee has also made certain important recommendations that will benefit Vidarbha region. These include emphasis on time-bound completion of projects, Green Bonus to areas that have conserved forest for years but have been deprived of developmental projects for the same, Nagpur-Surat connectivity to benefit cotton belt in Vidarbha, setting up Agricultural University at Sindewahi in Chandrapur district, railway connectivity to district headquarters of Yavatmal and Gadchiroli etc.
Dr Kelkar added that the report has proposed a concept of Virtual Region for tribals. The population of tribals is scattered across Maharashtra, and the group needs to be given special consideration in development process. As tribals could not be bound to a particular region, the concept of ‘Virtual Region’ has been introduced by the committee.
The committee report links allocation to District Planning Committees (DPCs) to performance in utilisation. Higher the utilisation, higher the incentives, said Dr Deshpande. The recommendations pertain to the plan expenditure of Maharashtra. Asked as to why allocation principle has not been recommended in case of non-plan expenditure, Dr Deshpande said that capital assets were created through plan expenditure only and non-plan expenditure could be done only if assets have been created through plan expenditure. Hence, it allocation principles are applied in case of plan expenditure and assets are created, non-plan expenditure also will increase proportionately.
The committee headed by noted economist Dr Vijay Kelkar comprised experts namely Dr Madhav Chitale, Dr Abhay Bang, Dr Abhay Pethe, Dr Vinayak Deshpande, Vijay Borade, Dr Sangita Kamdar, Dr Dilip Nachane, Dr V M Mayande, Dr Sanjay Chahande, Dr Mukund Ghare, Kumud Bansal, Dr R P Kurulkar. K P Bakshi, Additional Chief Secretary (Planning), was the Member Secretary. The report is likely to be tabled in State Legislature next week. The report also has sub-volumes dedicated to different regions including Vidarbha. Once the report is tabled, these sub-voumes will be made available online.

CM should head Devpt Boards Kelkar Committee has recommended that the role and responsibilities of Development Boards for various regions should be changed, but they should continue to function. However, to ensure that the Boards have a vital role to play, Chief Minister should head them, the committee has recommended. The Boards should have two local leaders and two experts as members. “We believe that the Boards should continue till desired equalisation of regions is achieved,” said Dr Vinayak S Deshpande. It may be mentioned here that recently the State Cabinet has extended the tenure of Development Boards till March 2020.

Panel recommends Vid Tourism
Development Corporation

For better development of tourism sites in Vidarbha in a focussed manner, Kelkar Committee has recommended that the Government should set up Vidarbha Tourism Development Corporation on the lines of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. Vidarbha region has got several strengths including eco-tourism, various anthropological, archaeological, agri-tourism sites, forts. Besides, it has got prominent tourist destinations like tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries, Lonar crater, Ramtek, Shegaon, Markanda Devsthan, Chikhaldara, etc.

Vid Development Cess on
power, competitive tariff

The high-powered committed headed by Dr Vijay Kelkar has also discussed the idea of levying ‘Vidarbha Development Cess’ on power generated in the region and supplied to other parts of Maharashtra. According to Dr Vinayak Deshpande, Vidarbha region is a major power generation centre. Power is supplied to other parts of the State also and assets are created there using this power. The cess so levied on power should be utilised for expediting development of Vidarbha region, he added. Further, the committee has recommended to make the power tariff competitive to attract investment to Vidarbha. At present, despite having resources, industries are not coming to Vidarbha region owing to high power tariff. The power tariff is higher than that in adjoining states of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. As a result, industries go to these states instead of setting up units in Vidarbha. Hence, there is a need to make power tariff for Vidarbha region comparable with adjoining states.

‘No comment made
on Vid statehood’
Referring to reports in a section of media that Kelkar Committee has favoured statehood to Vidarbha, the panel chief Dr Vijay Kelkar said that the committee’s mandate did not include the issue. “We had a clear task pertaining to balanced regional development. We have done that,” he said. The report includes narration of the sentiments expressed by stakeholders during consultations held in various regions including Vidarbha. The narration sums up the sentiments of stakeholders from Vidarbha who said that if the region did not get priority in development strategy, the demand for statehood would be inevitable. “This is not the comment of the committee,” he said. 

(09-12-14)

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