The government being the largest provider of public goods and services, makes huge investments across the sectors of economy : Bhupinder Singh Hooda

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Delhi,,

Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged the Planning Commission to evolve an umbrella approach regarding lump sum grants provided to the State governments and allow them necessary flexibility as per their requirements and priorities.Mr Hooda was speaking at the Regional Consultations meeting of the Planning Commission  on Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) in New Delhi  today. The meeting was presided over by Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Mr Hooda said that there is proliferation of Central sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes, most of which are based on ‘one size fit all’ approach and they do not provide the desired flexibilities to meet the State specific implementation requirements. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) was a useful example of umbrella approach adopted by the Central government, he added.

Mr Hooda said that the government being the largest provider of public goods and services, makes huge investments across the sectors of economy. The delivery costs of providing the services have increased substantially over the period. So the real challenge is of reducing the costs and improving efficiency of delivery of services. He suggested that one of the possible strategies of this could be ‘conditional cash transfers’ linking them to the desired outputs and outcomes.

Mr Hooda said that there is continous increase in the urbanisation of population in the States. In Haryana, the urban population was 29 per cent of the total population in the year 2001. It was expected to increase to 30 per cent in 2011. The slum population was also likely to increase from 17.69 per cent in 2001 to approximately 22 per cent in the year 2011. In Faridabad alone, the slum population was expected to increase from 4.81 lakh in 2001 to six lakh in the year 2011, which was as high as 45 per cent of the total population in the city. The challenge of providing basic services like sanitation, solid waste management, drinking water, affordable housing, transport, road network, health and education facilities was becoming more daunting. States alone could not deal with this challenge, he said. Therefore, there was an urgent need of support from the Centre. The Central government and think-tanks like Planning Commission were expected to evolve pragmatic models to attract private investments and harness efficiencies of private sector.

Referring to the growth of NCR, Mr Hooda said that 40 per cent of NCR is in Haryana, almost comprising 30 per cent of the State. Haryana being adjacent to Delhi has to bear lot of burden. The concept of National Capital Region (NCR) has had a limited success, as it has not been able to tackle the challenges posed by territorial boundaries of the constituent units. Different norms are applied in different States for providing even basic services. Even a project like Delhi Metro appears truncated in several cases. For example, terminals like Mundka are not meaningful destinations. Such instances point to sub optimal utilization of national resources. Even a healthy initiative of developing a private metro is held up due to various technicalities. Our development initiatives and planning are frustrated due to various factors beyond our control. The Central government should ensure that the norms of providing urban services in the NCR areas are implemented uniformly and equitably.

Talking about the projected growth level in 12th Five Year Plan, Haryana Chief Minister said that huge investments are required in physical and social infrastructure, as also in capacity building of various stake holders. States’ resources are inadequate to meet this requirement. It is, therefore, imperative that we develop new models to leverage these resources to bring in private investment. For example, we have created a sizeable capacity and infrastructure in the Higher Education Sector. The challenge here is to enhance the accessibility of the common man to avail of the benefits of these capacities. For this, liberal Vouchers/Scholarships could be devised to provide access to the common man. Similarly, in the health sector accessibility to the facilities available in the private sector can be provided through some sustainable arrangements with the private investors and by providing cashless treatment to the common man through an insurance based model.

Mr Hooda said that Haryana is largely an agrarian State and major challenge before it  is of making the effective use of its scarce surface and ground water resource. This needs  intensive efforts for watershed management and water conservation measures through MNREGA, and this will also require some flexibility in the norms of MNREGA programme by the Central government, he added.

Fully agreeing to the objective of ‘Faster, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth’, for the 12th Five Year Plan, Mr Hooda complimented and thanked the Planning Commission for providing the opportunity to the States in participative planning process.

A presentation on behalf of Haryana government was also made  in the meeting by its Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Finance, Mr Ajit M.Sharan, highlighting the progress made in various sectors in Haryana and the future projections.

Presentation was also made by the Planning Commission about the 12th Five Year Plan reflecting the achievements of 11th Five Year Plan  and the objective and projections of 12th Five year Plan. The presentation showed 8.2 per cent of the GDP growth in 11th Five Year Plan with objective of 9 to 9.05 per cent growth of GDP during next Five Year Plan. It mentioned energy, water and environment as the major challenges and dwelt upon various sectors of economy including agriculture, rural development, industry, education, health, urbanisation and development of infrastructure etc. It also mentioned health, education and skill development as the major sectors for resource allocation, followed by infrastructure.

The meeting of seven Northern States was attended by the Chief Ministers of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi and Finance and Planning Ministers of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. Haryana’s Finance Minister, Captain Ajay Singh Yadav was also present. Members of the Planning Commission, Ministers of Delhi Cabinet and a number of senior officers of various states were also present in the meeting.

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