This is the first of a three-part series on new states that have completed a decade of existence
Ten years into its existence as a state, Chhattisgarh spends 10 times more on its plan expenditure against the fund allocated to the head when it came into being.
According to government records, the annual plan size of the state had increased to Rs 13,230 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 1,312.27 crore in 2001-02.
Riding on political stability and planned development programmes, the state has shown considerable progress in fiscal management.
The state’s tax revenues had also gone up from Rs 2,001.76 crore to Rs 7,123.26 crore in the last one decade, while its non-tax revenues had surged from Rs 722.38 crore to Rs 3,043.49 crore.
Chhattisgarh, the ninth-largest state in terms of area, completes a decade of its existence today.
| PACE OF PROGRESS | ||
| Infrastructure indicators | 2009 | 2001 |
| Road Length (per 100 sq km) | 21.4 | 17.75 |
| Electrified villages (%) | 96.79 | 91.66 |
| Per Capita energy consumption (units) | 838 | 354 |
| Per Capita income (Rs ) | 38,534 (E) | 10,744 |
| Irrigated Area (%) | 31.12 | 23.15 |
| Rice Productivity (kg/hect) | 1476 | 988 |
| Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) | 335 | 379 |
| Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) | 57 | 70 |
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“On an average, the plan size has increased 30 per cent every year since the inception of the state,” Hanumant Yadav, an economic expert from the state, told Business Standard.
The surge in the state’s revenues had enabled the government to focus more on plan expenditure, he added.
The mineral-rich state had been striving for its share when it was part of the undivided Madhya Pradesh. “There was a feeling among the people of the state that the region had been neglected when it was a part of Madhya Pradesh and it blocked the development,” Yadav added.
Before Chhattisgarh was carved out as the 26th state of India on November 1, 2000, the region shared a little more than 40 per cent of Madhya Pradesh’s total revenue. “But it hardly got 28 per cent of its contribution for development works,” Yadav said.
According to Revenue Minister Amar Agarwal, who had a long tenure as finance minister, strict fiscal discipline, coupled with good management, made all the differences.
According to Shashank Sharma, director of a leading academic institution, Chhattisgarh is a state with a big achievement of keeping the fiscal deficit (as percentage of the gross state domestic product) below 3 per cent. It was 1.63 per cent in 2009-10.
The state had a revenue deficit of Rs 538.42 crore in 2001-02. By 2009-10, it had revenue surplus of Rs 888.70 crore.
“Surplus revenue helps the state building assets,” Sharma said, adding that the other achievement in the fiscal sector was that the non-plan expenditure never exceeded 45 per cent of the state’s budget.
Another feather in the state’s achievements has been a steady rise in the gross domestic product (GDP) rate, despite being affected by Naxalism.
Chhattisgarh’s GDP at current price had increased from Rs 29,539.35 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 1,07,848.23 crore in 2009-10. The state had recorded the highest GDP growth rate in the country in the last financial year.
Opposition parties criticise
Chhattisgarh’s per capita income (at current price) has increased nearly three-fold since its birth, but the number of families living below the poverty line (BPL) has doubled in the last one decade.
When the state came into being, the number of BPL families was 1.87 million. According to government records, the figure now stands at 3.62 million.
This despite the per capita income (at current price) increasing from Rs 12,170 in 2001-02 to Rs 38,534 (advance estimates) in 2009-10. “The number of poor people had increased in the state, but not poverty,” the revenue minister told Business Standard. The government made norms flexible to accommodate more people in the BPL list to facilitate them for availing of government schemes, he explained.
Opposition parties have strongly criticised the increased number of BPL families despite rising per capita income. “When the per capita income has increased, the number of BPL people should have come down,” the Congress party’s state spokesperson Ramesh Varlyani said.
According to Agrawal, the number increased following surveys conducted by the agencies of the Union government in 1998 and 2002.