Naveen Patnaik says Orissa striving to achieve inclusive economic growth

In the deliberations during the 55th meeting of the National Development Council at New Delhi on 24th July, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik stated that Orissa has been striving to achieve sustainable and inclusive higher economic growth, accelerated overall development and a faster rate of poverty reduction.

The State economy has grown at an average annual rate of 9.51% during the 10th Plan and at 8.73% per annum in the first three years of the 11th Plan, at a faster rate than the national average, despite challenges posed by the “global economic slow-down”.

The Chief Minister highlighted several achievements and initiatives of the Stat Government. These include: (i) higher plan outlays over the years, (ii) continued emphasis on developing productive infrastructure including roads and irrigation projects, (iii) a robust policy framework for industrial promotion and investment facilitation, (iv) opening of a large number of vocational and technical institutions to train youth with employable skills, (v) taking up a massive programme for construction of more than 3,000 hostels for boosting up the tribal literacy, (vi) setting up special courts and legal aid cells in the Scheduled Areas to protect the rights of ST and SC communities and to quickly dispose their grievances, (vii) implementation of Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1961 in the tribal areas, and (viii) enforcement of the Scheduled Tribes & Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. The Chief Minister emphasized that agriculture and allied sectors needed greater attention and stressed for liberal Central funding to raise agricultural productivity and improve skill levels of the rural population.

He proposed for broadening the scope of Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) to include Lift Irrigation Projects in areas where flow irrigation was not possible. Substantial augmentation of Central funding under AIBP and for addressing water logging & drainage congestion problems and command area development was also emphasized by him. In addition, he stated that the Government of India should address expeditiously some other pressing issues which include:

(i) Funding for various initiatives under the Right to Education and sharing of funds between the Centre and states in ratio of 90:10 in view of low resource base and other development needs of states. (ii) Need to roll out more centrally funded schemes to address the issues of low urbanization including urban poverty, livelihood, health, housing and infrastructure.

(iii) Appropriate modifications in the guidelines for APDRP-II to extend

its benefits to Odisha.

(iv) Immediate attention to address the issues of abnormal delays in allocation of coal blocks / coal linkage and environmental & forest clearances for new power projects.

(v) Enact a separate Central Legislation or make suitable provisions in the existing Central Power Policies and Acts for allocating at least 25% free power by thermal power plants to the host state and for levying electricity duty at the point of generation rather than at the point of consumption to compensate for the cost of environmental degradation.

(vi) Allocation of 500 MW of power from the Central Un-allocated Share and NTPC Kaniha Stage-II to Odisha to address the current power deficit situation in the state.

(vii) Early approval of the 8-Year Perspective Plan of Rs.4,550 crore for KBK districts to expedite development of the KBK region.

(viii) Special assistance for the Odisha portion of the Vijayawada-Ranchi Highway passing through the tribal dominated districts.

(ix) Revision of guidelines for the Central flagship programmes to cover habitations of 100 or more population in tribal areas.