Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Kerala
Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State Planning Board vice-chairman C. V. Padmarajan has said that serious thought must be given to the question whether it is advisable to devolve 33 per cent of the State budget allocations to the Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs) without looking at their needs and disparities. Releasing the `District Development Index 2004' prepared by the Institute for Monitoring Economic Growth (IMEG) and inaugurating a seminar on fund devolution here on Tuesday, Mr. Padmarajan said the manner in which Rs.9,000 crores or so devolved so far to the LSGIs had been utilised and the question whether there was proper accountability on the part of the LSGIs should be closely examined. The question whether, in their eagerness to divide funds among various constituent wards, the LSGIs had lost a comprehensive vision of development should also be looked at, he added. The Planning Board vice-chairman said though the State had achieved much in quantitative terms, the quality of what it had achieved in fields such as education and healthcare left much to be desired. Kerala's achievements gave a deceptive picture of the State's progress and this was proving to be handicaps for Kerala. An objective analysis of the achievements like in healthcare and education would show that they are preliminary in nature. The focus must now be on quality upgradation. He did not think it was prudent to concentrate State's energies on fighting globalisation and liberalisation. These were realities and, though they could be taken on at an ideological level, it was no use going any further. There was also no scope for anti-Centre agitations and the political structure that was in place at the Centre one that foreclosed such an option, Mr. Padmarajan added. Speaking on the occasion, Planning Board member-secretary S. M. Vijayanand said there was urgent need to create a local level statistical data base. Economic data needed for planning was quite sparse and census was the only reliable data available to planners now. The decennial census data could prove beneficial if the data could be used after deleting the identification elements, he said. Mr. Vijayanand pointed out that Kerala's fiscal decentralisation record was the best in India, but regretted that the LSGIs have forgotten their responsibility to raise their own revenue. The panchayats, for instance, were collecting only 50 per cent of what they could actually mobilise through taxes. IMEG chairman K. Ramachandran Nair chaired the meeting.
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