Bhubaneswar, Aug. 22: As Orissa steps up its offensive against Maoist rebels, central assistance to the state for the development of Naxal-affected districts seems less than adequate.
For the past two years, developmental projects such as building of roads, healthcare centres and water supply units are being executed under the Centre-sponsored Integrated Action Plan (IAP) in 15 of the state’s 17 districts that have been witnessing Maoist activities.
While the districts of Balangir, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Sonepur, Nowrangpur, and Koraput, which together constitute the state’s most backward belt, have been made part of the IAP, the other beneficiary districts are Deogarh, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur and Sundergarh.
Official sources said that during the past two years, the Centre had released Rs 525 crore for the IAP, an initiative of the Union home ministry. But expenditure on the ground had been less than half this amount.
“An amount of Rs 237.39 crore has been spent in the past two years on various schemes under the IAP. The low expenditure, however, is not on account of any delay on the part of the Orissa government. Rather, the Centre was slow in releasing funds,” said a senior official.
On the IAP expenditure front, Orissa has been lagging behind several other states where the scheme was being implemented simultaneously. While the percentage of expenditure in Orissa has so far been 45.22, it was 88.93 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 76.54 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 57.22 per cent in Maharashtra, and 46.20 per cent in Chhattisgarh.
Sources in the Orissa government, however, said that the comparison was not fair as the allocation of funds was much smaller in the case of most of the states that appear to have performed better than Orissa. For example, while only Rs 70 crore was sanctioned to Andhra Pradesh, it was even lower at Rs 35 crore in the case of Uttar Pradesh.
“The truth is that while Maoist violence in Andhra Pradesh has subsided to a great extent, the scale of the problem in Uttar Pradesh is nothing compared to that in states such as Orissa and Chhattisgarh. In fact, Orissa deserves special attention from the Centre in this regard,” said a senior official.
The Centre, however, has made it clear that the scheme was uniformly applicable to all the Naxal-affected districts of the country and there would be no discrimination in allocation of funds. In such a situation, Orissa would have to explore other avenues of garnering funds to boost the development drive in the areas dominated by the Maoists.
