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A welcome review

The visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Hyderabad and Bangalore last week for an interaction with the top echelons of the two State governments over programme implementation and development issues in their States accords with an evolving, wholesome practice. Prime Ministers have generally made it a point to make periodical visits to problem States, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and the ones in the north-eastern region, for a review of development projects or sec urity concerns. Those exercises have almost invariably resulted in the announcement of a slew of new initiatives and assistance packages. More recently, in the wake of a wave of farmer suicides that forced the Centre to take serious note of the creeping agrarian crisis, Dr. Manmohan Singh visited Maharashtra and, after an official review at the highest level, unfolded what has come to be known as the ‘Vidarbha package’. The Prime Minister has taken this State-specific review process forward by his latest visits to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. That he was joined by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia lent weight and depth to the exercise, marking it out as much more than a routine bureaucratic scrutiny.

The focus at the review meetings both at Hyderabad and Bangalore was, naturally, on agriculture and its various aspects — irrigation, yield pattern and so on — apart from sub-regional imbalances. The progress of projects under implementation as also the funding-related issues came under the scanner. With the Centre and the Planning Commission committed to achieving a 4 per cent growth in the agricultural sector, the Eleventh Plan has envisaged a Rs.25,000 crore special programme for the purpose. The States however have not been able to get all that they wanted. If Andhra Pradesh wanted a more affordable pricing for the natural gas tapped from the Krishna-Godavari basin, that was not forthcoming. The matter has since been referred to an Empowered Group of Ministers. Karnataka’s fund utilisation came in for critical review and the consultation has also paved the way for removing the bottlenecks. The routine meetings that the State Chief Ministers or Finance Ministers have with either the Prime Minister or the Planning Commission in New Delhi cannot obviously provide a platform of the kind the prime ministerial review does for a broad and close review. It acquires extra significance in the context of the need to improve Centre-State relations and deal fairly with all States, irrespective of the party in power.

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