People's Democracy

CPI(M) TEAM MEETS FINANCE COMMISSION

Special Status Demanded For Rajasthan

IN view of the severe weakness of the social and economic infrastructure in Rajasthan, the CPI(M) has reiterated its demand that the state must be given a special category status for the sake of its speedy development. The party raised the issue on June 22 when its delegation met the Finance Commission of India at Jaipur during the commission�s visit to the state. The CPI(M) also submitted a memorandum to the commission in this regard, giving details about the situation of the state and making several important suggestions for its development. A summary of the memorandum follows.

1) Rajasthan is, geographically speaking, the biggest state of the country but a big part of the state is a sandy desert. The state�s area is 3,42,239 square kilometres, which constitutes 10.4 per cent of the country�s total area. Five districts of the state --- Shri Ganganagar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer --- are adjacent to the border of Pakistan. The people living here have to regularly face several problems, including displacement, because of war exercises.

2) The total population of the state is 5,65,07,138, of which the urban population is 1,32,14,325 and the rural population is 4,32,92,813. As for the sex ration, there are only 922 women in the state per 1,000 men, as against the national level ratio of 933. This is the result of discriminatory treatment meted out to women and of foeticide.      

3) Rajasthan comes in the category of economically backward states. The social and economic infrastructure of the state is still quite backward. On various indices of human development � agricultural and industrial development, education, health, water and power availability, their consumption, means of irrigation, per capita income, employment opportunities, grain consumption, toilet facilities, road and transport facilities, birth and death rates, rate of population growth, prevailing age of marriage, child labour and social consciousness etc --- the state is among the lowest ranking ones.

4) Agriculture contributes about 30 per cent of the state domestic product (SDP) of Rajasthan, and more than 70 per cent of the population here depends upon it. As a big part of the state is hot and sandy, agriculture is mostly dependent upon rains. Famines have become the fate of the people because of deficient and sometimes excessive rainfall. In the last few years, the crisis has taken the shape of simultaneous shortage of food, fodder and water. In the state, only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is irrigated. Out of the total irrigated area of 49,07,000 hectares, the canals, wells and other sources of water account for 1,42,000; 2,653 and 47,000 hectares respectively. The average cereal yield in the state is 1,036 kilograms per hectare as against the national average of 1,768 kilograms. Dearth of irrigation facilities and low consumption of fertilisers are among the major factors of low foodgrains yield in the state. The encouragement being given to contractual agriculture has led to increased exploitation of peasants by contractors while the indiscriminate use of fertilisers by some companies is reducing the productivity of the fields.

Providing total security to the marginal farmers, transferring surplus labour to non-agricultural areas of work and extension of cultivation in areas with a more favourable climate are absolutely necessary for steady and sustainable development of agriculture in the state. Proper water harvesting, conservation and management may effectively help in fighting the famine conditions.

5) There is the pressing need of speedy completion of 160 pending irrigation projects and paying special attention to dry agriculture in the state, in addition to the development of big, medium and small means of irrigation. Following the Eradi commission�s recommendations on the Ravi-Beas river water dispute, the shares of Punjab and Haryana were kept intact, with the result that Rajasthan�s real share declined by three per cent. Moreover,

--- Punjab is not sincere about completing the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal, and    

--- Rajasthan has been given less than its due share in the Yamuna water.

6) Agriculture and animal husbandry constitute two pillars of the rural economy in Rajasthan, with animal husbandry contributing about 13 per cent of the SDP. Sheep rearing is an important source of income in the arid and semi-arid areas of Rajasthan. More than two lakh families are engaged in sheep rearing and an almost equal number in wool processing.

Hence there is the need to pay attention to sheep and goat rearing, improvement of the breeds of these animals and on dairy development, with special fund allocations.

7) As the landlord class has excessive political influence in the state, proper attention was not paid to the task of land reforms in Rajasthan.

In the state, the acquired ceiling surplus land is less than what could be available. Even today, influential feudal elements are in illegitimate occupation of the lands belonging to the poor, particularly dalits. Because of the class character of the successive state governments, the ceiling laws were not as effectively implemented as they should have been. Hence a definite, transparent and time-bound land reforms programme must be devised in order to help the small and marginal farmers in the state.

You would agree that land reforms play the biggest role in agricultural development. It is accepted that land reforms lead to an increase in agricultural production and take us further in the direction of social justice and equality. This helps in eradication of poverty and introducing technological innovations in agriculture.

Between 1991 and 2001, the number of agricultural workers in the state had increased from 13.90 lakhs to 25.30 lakhs. Of the latter number, 24.4 lakhs were residing in rural and about 87,000 in urban areas. This big increase in the number of agricultural workers is a serious problem, demanding an increase in the employment opportunities in cottage industries.

8) As many as 13,242 villages are still deprived of potable water and 613 villages are cursed to live in darkness.

In 33 districts of the state, 140 panchayat samities have been declared extra-sensitive in the matter of groundwater exploitation.

The literacy rate is 60.41 per cent in the state. It is 75.70 per cent among the males and 43.85 per cent among the females.

Rajasthan ranks 29th in the country in the matter of literacy.   

According to the educational development index evolved by the central government, Rajasthan ranks 18th in elementary education and 19th in upper primary education.  

About 44 per cent of the children are suffering from malnutrition. Some 80 per cent of those aged six months to three years are anaemic.

The expected life is 62.2 years among the males and 62.8 years among the females.

About 40 per cent of the state�s population lives in 11 districts of the Thar desert.

Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes constitute, respectively, 17.2 and 12.56 per cent of the state�s population, i e about 30 per cent, taken together. The sad plight of these sections means extremely low social development in the state.

The state has a human development index of 0.424. On this score, Rajasthan ranks 9th among the 15 backward states.

In infrastructure, the index of relative development is 76. On this score, Rajasthan ranks last among the 14 backward states.

Rajasthan is quite rich in mineral resources and ranks second in the country. But it holds 5th position in the production of minerals. The state has 39 kinds of major and 22 kinds of minor minerals. The state does need a new minerals policy.

9) Electricity holds a central place in economic development. Its adequate and regular supply at reasonable rates greatly impacts the development of agriculture as well as industry. But, yet, the state holds 11th position among the 17 backward states in the country in the matter of per capita power consumption. It is only 335 kilowatts in Rajasthan as against the 531 kilowatts in the country as a whole. Here, only 62.3 per cent of the families are getting power supply while 37.7 per cent are still living in darkness. Development of agriculture and industry in the state can be visualised only after greatly increasing the availability of power.

10) Climatic variation is an important feature of the state. The Aravali range has a great impact on the climate and topography of the state. This mountain range acts as a rainfall dividing line; the areas east of this range get more rainfall than those lying to its west. Soil erosion is a big problem in the state. Rajasthan has, barring Punjab, the smallest forest reserves in the country. It alone accounts for one fifth of the total barren land in the country. Water availability is a bigger problem here compared to water pollution.  

11) As many as 20 years ago, 81 out of 237 blocks of Rajasthan were put in the �dark� category while the situation was alarming in another 31. The water table in the state has gone dangerously down; Rajasthan is the state with severest scarcity of water sources. The state has only one per cent of the ground water in the country. Most of the land is barren or sandy.

12) The shortage of water, soil erosion, deforestation, the problem of �sem� (unduly excessive moisture in soil) and the creation of marshland in the areas irrigated by the Indira Gandhi canal project clearly demonstrate the problems of environment in the state.

13) Poverty has been a serious issue under consideration in our five-year plans. In our state, the rural poor include small and marginal farmers, agricultural workers, tenants, scheduled castes and tribes, bonded labourers, people without income and cultivators without means. Daily wage workers are an important segment of the poor in urban areas. In Rajasthan, various historical, cultural, geographic, demographic and economic factors have combined to make the problem of poverty excruciating.   

On the criterion of capability poverty, which is a new criterion of poverty, the Human Development Index of the UNDP estimated the poverty ratio of Rajasthan at 66 per cent, which is much higher than the ratio of 52 per cent for India as a whole. Therefore, implementing employment oriented, pro-village and pro-poor policies, with adequate funding, is of utmost importance for eradication of poverty in the state.  

14) The fast growth of population, the ups and downs of agricultural development and the slow industrial development in the state has badly impacted the employment situation here. A matter of deep concern is that the expansion of education has been coupled with the growth of educated unemployed in the state.

According to the Professor Vijay Shankar Vyas committee that was constituted to estimate the magnitude of unemployment in Rajasthan at present and in future, the number of the jobless was 5.63 lakhs in the beginning of the eleventh five-year plan. And the estimate is that there will be an addition of 41.55 lakhs in the workforce in the remaining years of the plan. Thus the number of people for whom jobs will have to be created, comes to 46.98 lakhs.  

15) As we all know, financial resources of the states are not commensurate with their needs. Hence the transfers from the centre to the states are of utmost importance. We have also seen that when different parties are in power at the centre and in a state, the amounts of plan transfers and other transfers are less than required. Now the dependence of the states on the centre has grown much all over the country. It was after serious and indepth deliberation that the Sarkaria commission had prepared its report on the situation of centre-state relations in the country. Our party has always been insisting on the implementation of many of its recommendations.

The Finance Commission�s transfers from the centre to the states has come down now to about 2.80 per cent of the national income from the earlier 3.05 per cent. The outstanding loans owed by some of the states is more than even 40 per cent of their SDPs. In case of Rajasthan, it is more than 50 per cent.

16) The state has been facing a double problem. On the one hand, its rate of development has been low while, on the other hand, the financial crisis has been deepening. The share of Rajasthan was 5.17 per cent of the total transfers made by the 11th Finance Commission; it was less than 5.42 per cent of the transfers made by the 10th Finance Commission. 

The inter-state disparities and gaps can be reduced only by giving more weightage to the backwardness of the states lagging behind. At present, 11 out of the 28 states are in the special category while 17 are in the non-special category. Our party has constantly been demanding that Rajasthan must be included among the special category state, as its social and economic infrastructure has been quite weak. 

In the interest of the people of Rajasthan, our party wants to put forward some important suggestions. These are listed below.

i) Rajasthan must be given the status of a special category state.

ii) Heavy investment must be made in infrastructure development. There must be adequate fund allocation for rural infrastructure, like roads, electrification etc.

iii) Out of the total pool of central taxes, 50 per cent must be distributed among the states.

iv) Of the debts taken from the market, the share of the states must be increased to 50 per cent.

v) The condition that the states must pass the FRBM and other similar legislations, must be withdrawn.

vi) The opinions of the states must be heard while constituting a finance commission and deciding its terms of reference.

vii) A central project pertaining to a state must be handed over to that state, along with the project fund.

viii) The public expenditure on education and on health must be increased to 6 and 5 per cent, respectively, of the country�s gross domestic product (GDP).

ix) The annual plan expenditure must be increased to 10 per cent of the GDP; right now it is less than 5 per cent.

x) The constitution must be amended in order to make the Inter-State Council�s decisions binding upon the central government. The National Development Council (NDC) must be given a constitutional status.

xi) The Planning Commission must act as an arm of the NDC.

xii) A minimum ratio of the GDP must be earmarked for the expenditures to be incurred by the local self-governing bodies. The funds meant for these bodies must be routed through the concerned state governments.

xiii) The centre must provide at least 50 per cent of the amounts required for implementation of the 6th Pay Commission�s recommendations.