Finance Panel Chief Praises Odisha For Disaster, Fiscal Management; Critical Of Health Sector

Bhubaneswar: Chairman of the 15^th Finance Commission, Nand Kishore Singh on Wednesday praised the Odisha government for its deft disaster management but expressed concern over the status of its health sector.

Talking to mediapersons after a meeting with senior state government officials in the presence of the Chief Minister at the State Secretariat in the afternoon, he said Odisha has had the benefit of political stability with an enlightened political leadership. The leadership is quite aligned to improve the growth potential of the state, he said.

On the overall financial management and metrics, the state government must be given credit as it has done a commendable exercise in significantly improving its financial parameters in the recent years. It especially deserves credit as the state’s GDP rates are more or less in the area of about 20 per cent as per the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, he added.

“No doubt, in the last two years, there has been a significant augmentation in the overall stock update, which was explained on account of some important initiative taken up by the state government,” Singh noted.

On fiscal deficit numbers, they are within three per cent. But the budget estimate (BE) for the projected numbers overshoots the three per cent. “We have been assured by the state government that it will keep the fiscal deficit numbers within the principal parameters defined under the revised FRBM Act and this, therefore, represents important progress on conformity to the overall macro-economic stability as far as Odisha’s financial management is concerned.

Singh also praised the efforts of the state government in dealing with natural calamity. “I think disasters continue to remain a big challenge for Odisha. The consequences of disasters were brought out dramatically in a short film that was shown to the Commission. We recognize that Odisha has done a commendable job,” he maintained.

On the poverty rate in Odisha, Singh said, “Very significant progress has been made in reducing the poverty rate although the poverty numbers still continue to be significantly higher than the national average. In terms of per capita income, there has been a significant improvement. But it still has a long way to go before it catches up with the national average.

Referring to the social indicators of progress, he said in spite of very significant improvement in many health indices, there are some health indices where more progress is required. “Strengthening healthcare services in terms of the total number of medical colleges, improving the average availability of doctors per segment of the population is necessary. As of now, the availability of one doctor per 8000-10,000 people is not a welcome picture in the state. Hence, increasing the number of medical institutes, changing and fine-tuning the regulatory structures, which will enable more doctors along with the para-medics, making primary health centres (PHCs) more accountable, a system of compulsory auditing and reporting to improve the working of the PHCs are necessary. Apart from this, there should be a significant improvement in medical education and the number of medical colleges. This is the area on which there was a convergence of views between the state government and the Commission,” Singh pointed out.

Talking about the indices on education, he said in terms of access, remarkable progress has been made for improving the overall literacy ratio. Nonetheless, in improving the outcomes, particularly at the higher secondary, upper primary education, a lot more needs to be done as per the findings of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).
He further said that the growth rate that Odisha has achieved for several years is higher than the national average of more than 10 per cent. But it has exhibited significant volatility and lack of consistency as the growth trend in the last couple of years has dipped below the acceptable level. “It could be on account of natural calamities. But maintaining the high trend rates of the economic growth, the state government should make efforts to ensure sustained increase in the per capita income to reduce the poverty rate,” he noted.

In the area of agriculture, Singh said an enormous amount of effort is going on in improving the reach of the irrigated area through lift irrigation and other innovative agricultural practices. “Nonetheless, the Commission has brought out that much more needs to be done by way of crop diversification for improving the yields on rice and other crops, which are currently being grown. Since the contribution of the primary sector continues to be large, this is the area where we would be happy to see significant progress.

On the mineral resources of the state, the Finance Commission chairman said Odisha has over 72 per cent of India’s mineral resources. But the contribution of the manufacturing sector in relation to its mineral resources continues to be rather modest. The primary sector is still important in the tertiary sector and it is really taking off, he informed.