* 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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