Maharashtra to Publish Human Development Report Every Year.
------------------------------------------
Planning Commission has approved annual state plan for Maharashtra 2011-12 worth Rs. 42,000 crores, a 500 crore in addition to what state government proposed in its presentation before Planning Commission in New Delhi on Thursday. According to the sources, the Planning Commission has applauded Maharashtra state’s performance in many areas.
The key issues discussed in today’s meeting were water, power, and infrastructure, millennium development goals of nutrition, sanitation, and infant mortality. The discussions about water and power were largely centered about the availability of coal to new power plants being proposed or coming up in the state. A large number of investors who wish to establish power plants are interested in Vidarbha region because of its proximity to the coal resources in Chattisgarh and Orissa. Even though state government has a policy, which gives freedom to new private investors to establish power plants without any licensing, out of the total Memorandum of Understanding signed by state government with the private investors, only 10 percent projects are moving towards status of formal start. The companies which wish to invest in Konkan region are thinking about importing quality coal from abroad but imported coal is not cheap compared to domestic coal. Therefore, Vidarbha is gaining more importance in terms of increasing investment in power projects. State government has expressed its concern saying, while much of the power need is being felt in Western Maharashtra, ensuring the dedicated coal supply from far regions to the power plants is a problem, considering the role of railways involved.
Planning Commission congratulated Maharashtra state for establishing Water Regulatory Authority and appealed to state government to work on the tariff modalities, so that Planning Commission can learn from this unique experiment to accommodate the lessons to draft Model Act on Water Regulatory Authority to be listed in the 12th Plan Document. Planning Commission also felt this draft model act, would be useful in guiding other states in implementing this regulatory system in their state. Maharashtra, under its Water Regulatory Authority has decided water entitlement for 260 projects. State government informed Planning Commission about the revised policy of the government about the priority of the water usage in the state. According to the Barve Commission report of 1962, the priority was set in order of drinking water, industry and agriculture. But state government has revised the order keeping drinking water at first place, while agriculture taking higher priority over industrial use. Therefore, the issue of water allocation is also becoming crucial n the clearance of the new power plants.
Planning Commission expressed concern over the pattern of water use in state. Pointing out that of the total cultivation in the state of Maharashtra, sugarcane is cultivated on only 2 percent land, but it is consuming over 70 % of water available for irrigation. State government has promised to look into this matter citing this as a politically sensitive matter. Commission noticed that state government is investing only half percent of the total irrigation budget for the development of command area. On this issue, state government clarified that priority of state government being focused on securing water in the dams rather than investing it for irrigation projects, in the light of mandatory deadlines of water sharing agreements between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Planning Commission praised state government’s initiative in reducing the load shedding and the claim of the state government that state will be load shedding free by 2012. At the same time Planning Commission cautioned about transmission and distribution losses. Current peak power deficit of Maharashtra is 3000- 3500 MW. Planning Commission has suggested the state government to learn from the experience of Haryana, which is currently implementing PPP model in power transmission investing 400 crores. Apart from this, the State government informed about its scheme under which agriculture sector is not provided electricity during peak hours during day. Instead, they are being provided electricity in non-peak periods, without compromising the domestic 24 hours electricity supply. This has ensured lesser load shedding along with lesser loss of water.
Notably, the state government expressed its deep concern over the conservative role played by State Electricity Regulatory Authority in deciding the electricity tariff structure, which is not helpful to the efforts of state government to recover from the challenges in the power sector. State government also assured Planning Commission that government is not interfering in the operations of the MERC. In turn, the Planning Commission suggested that the government should look more positively towards the ‘Open Access’ policy mooted by Central Electricity Authority under which, any big consumer can purchase energy from anywhere, and thereby loosen burden on the state electricity distribution boards. In this respect, state government informed Planning Commission that state has initiated policy in which consumers using more than one megawatt of electricity are relieved from state regulator tariff and they can access energy on market price.
State government requested Planning Commission to expedite the Land Acquisition Act so that it can implement many power and other infrastructure projects, which are being delayed otherwise. The major infrastructure projects discussed today were MIHAN SEZ project of Nagpur, international airports at Nagpur, Navi Mumbai and Chakan, Pune. State government requested Planning Commission to assist in the expedition of the MIHAN project and international airport at Nagpur, so that crucially important location like Nagpur can be used for direct exports of goods. State government appealed Planning Commission to look carefully into the matter of viability gap regarding the MIHAN project. The Viability Gap Funding Scheme provides financial support in the form of grants to infrastructure projects undertaken through public private partnerships with a view to make them commercially viable. Central Government has established a Viability Gap Fund to aid the PPP infrastructure projects which face the viability gap due to inherent nature of the project. The Scheme is administered by the Ministry of Finance. Planning Commission appealed to the state government to look for the viability of the Metro project in Mumbai and suggested to look towards solely state funded project rather than approaching PPP route in this respect. State government has not notified SEZ act yet so the initiatives on this part are yet to take any shape.
In the wake of 25 % of the awards given to villages by the President of India for sanitation campaign going to Maharashtra, the Planning Commission expressed its concern over the consistent pattern of these villages falling back on their performances in this regard. Planning Commission suggested establishing a feedback system or implementing a check list for assessing the performance of these villages in cumulative manner. Regarding the ‘Total Sanitation Campaign’, the state government is embarking on a mission under which, every state government building would be ensured with the availability of ladies toilets, going beyond the routine practice of building toilets in primary schools to help reduce the drop out rates of the girl students. State government has requested Planning Commission to consider additional assistance to extend sanitation scheme for secondary educational institutions and beyond.
State government has suggested novel idea to Planning Commission about checking of water quality in the state. According to this idea, every Science College, medical college, engineering college in particular area can use its laboratory and human resources to check quality of the water in the area in consistent manner. Planning Commission has commended this idea and promised to look at it more seriously at central level.
State government informed Planning Commission about its experiment in Kolhapur district where sonography machines are being monitored for the actual girl sex determination and thus ensuring the check on the female feticide. Punjab government has taken note of this experiment. State government has requested Planning Commission to guide it about the possible implications of the widespread implementation of this experiment because it may provoke ethical debates in future. Planning Commission has expressed deep concern about the greater girl child infant mortality in minority population in Parbhani, Jalna, Washim and Buldhana districts. Commission appealed state government to expedite some kind of research study to identify the reasons for this greater girl child infant mortality in other backward districts of the state also.
---------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment