Drought looms even as Chouhan aims at double-digit farm growth

As he completes two years in office in his third term as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan needs to focus on the state's declining social indicators

In the first week of October, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh, Nand Kumar Chouhan, coined a slogan "Dus saal bemisaal (Ten incomparable years)" to mark Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's decade in office on November 29. He announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been requested to address a gathering of 1,058 BJP legislators invited from across the country that day. Just as the local BJP unit was about to raise a toast to Chouhan, reports started trickling into Bhopal that the state was likely to witness its worst drought in living memory.

Chouhan, recovering from opposition attacks over his alleged involvement in the Vyapam entrance examination scandal, urged party members to drop the celebration plan and join farmers in the field. He also asked senior bureaucrats to meet farmers and come up with suggestions about what could be done for them. After a month-long exercise of field visits and a series of discussions with experts and officials, Chouhan readied a blueprint for the next phase of his farm reforms.
 

"It was incorrectly reported in the media that bureaucrats were sent to survey fields to estimate crop loss. In fact, they were deployed to discuss with farmers how the state government could mitigate their losses," says Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anthony De Sa. Chouhan called a special Assembly session on November 5 to announce immediate relief of about Rs 3,000 crore to farmers.

As farmers began preparing for the Rabi season, the chorus at the party headquarters resumed celebrating Chouhan's 10 years in office. But more trouble was in store.

On November 24, BJP faced a crushing defeat in the byelection for the Jhabua Lok Sabha seat. The results came as a question mark on Chouhan's development agenda and farm reforms.

Another incident in Barwani district in December cast doubts on the government's claims of improved health care in the state. Forty-five people lost their sight due to negligence at an eye camp conducted by the district hospital. Prima facie, the eye solution was faulty. A team of doctors sent from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi failed to undo the damage.

Chouhan has been doing all he can to repair his image damaged by the Vyapam scam. When the controversy seemed to be ebbing, he shifted his focus to the Vishwa Hindi Sammelan organised in August and Simhastha 2016 in the temple town of Ujjain.

All this while he has been persistently highlighting his preoccupation with agriculture. "Had I not introduced farm sector reforms during my regime, the situation might have been worse," Chouhan told the media. He is galvanising the state machinery so that this year, too, farm growth remains in the double digits.

But the growth rates have been challenged by opponents, such as former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, who claim the numbers might be fudged. Madhya Pradesh's agriculture growth was 18.9 per cent (provisional estimates) in 2011-12, 20.44 per cent (quick estimates) in 2012-13 and 22.43 per cent (advance estimates) in 2013-14. The gross state domestic product at constant prices grew 8.7 per cent in 2013-14, 9.48 per cent in 2013-14, and 10.19 per cent in 2014-15 (advance estimates).

"It was mainly due to better seed replacement, promotion of farm methods like ridge and furrow, and use of better farm techniques. Also our fertiliser consumption has gone up. It has contributed in per hectare production growth though acreage remains almost the same," an official in the state agriculture department said.

The state's net irrigated area was 8,550,000 hectares in 2012-13. This went up to 9,554,000 hectares in 2013-14. "We will cover an area of 40 lakh (four million) hectares from the existing 23 lakh (2.3 million) hectares by 2018," Chouhan had said in an interview to Business Standard recently.

Besides farm growth, his policies like the Rs 150 bonus on purchase of every quintal of wheat, earned Chouhan and his party handsome dividends during the Assembly and general elections.

The state government has hosted several investor summits that have committed Rs 6,00,000-crore investment. After a recent meeting with Anil Ambani, Chouhan said he expected investments of Rs 40,000 crore. He has also earned an assurance of Rs 12,000 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for the Bhopal and Indore Metro rail projects.

The state generates 14,000 Mw of electricity and the government is planning to add 3,000 Mw of solar and wind power. "Our target is to achieve at 17,000 Mw by 2020," says Rajendra Shukla, Madhya Pradesh's minister for energy.

Yet the state's social indicators are alarming. The state has the highest number of malnourished children in the country - 42.5 per cent of children under five. In a sample report for 2014 the state registered the highest infant mortality in the country - 54 among 1,000 live births against the national rate of 40.

Dropouts are low in primary and middle school at 6.4 per cent, but this climbs to 24 per cent among boys and 27 per cent among girls in higher secondary school.

The state reported 6,346 incidents of juvenile crime, a fifth of all the cases in the country.

A politician known for his common touch, Chouhan is now focusing on agri-markets and a home-grown crop insurance scheme.

In perishables, he is exploring milk and horticulture routes, and is trying to set up mini-food processing units in villages. "If we can put up these food processing units that run on locally available raw material we will be able to plug gaps in the value chain," says De Sa.

While almost half the state is yet to recover from this year's drought, Chouhan has asked departments to prune 15 per cent of their budgets so that he can assure farmers they will not be left in the lurch.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Social schemes for women

• Ladli Laxmi, an anchor scheme launched in 2007 to financially protect the girl child
   
• As many as 1.9 million girls have been given benefits so far
   
• Mukhyamantri Kanyadan and Mukhyamantri Nikah Yojana for the economically weaker section
   
• A total of Rs 25,000 is given to a family with a marriageable daughter, widow or divorcee - a beneficiary is entitled to Rs 10,000 to meet marriage expenses and Rs 5,000 for necessary goods; another Rs 7,000 is given for the beneficiary to set his new life in order; Rs 3,000 given for ceremonial expenses
  

 

Urban domestic helps have been given identification cards; 50-day training with Rs 2,000 stipend is also imparted to improve skills; scheme entails health benefits and ex-gratia in case of death; as many as 53,000 women have benefitted

Key health scheme

• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - free medicine scheme
   
• Generic medicines are made available to outdoor and indoor patients in all hospitals across the state
   
• Free pathology test facility
   
• Mukhyamantri Child Heart Treatment (launched in 2011)
   
• "108 Ambulance " for emergency health facility and hospitalisation

Education schemes

• Free bicycle scheme to boys and girls attending schools in other villages
  

 

Tuition fee waiver scheme is available to 10 per cent of the total seats available at technical institute, provided the gross annual income of the parents is not above Rs 4.5 lakh

Super 100 scheme

• All meritorious students of class X are given coaching free of cost so that they can face entrance tests for IITs, medical colleges, chartered accountancy, etc

Employment for poor

• Scheme for rickshaw and handcart pullers
   
• As many as 15,000 rickshaw-pullers and 74,000 handcart-pullers have been given identity cards and financial assistance