A delegation of AJSU party led by party chief Sudesh Mahto met President Pranab Mukherjee to discuss over the matter of providing Jharkhand special State status at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday. In the meeting the delegates presented a memorandum to the President stating the reason why Jharkhand should be provided special status.
In the memorandum it was mentioned that 65 years have passed since independence and Jharkhand is still groaning under the weight of backwardness. After bifurcation of Bihar, Jharkhand was left with negligible portion of cultivated land. Jharkhand’s total land area is of 79,714 sq Km out of which about 29 per cent is covered by forests and woodlands. About a quarter is cultivated and more than a third is classified as barren, waste or fallow land.
Moreover, in terms of per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), the state has remained at the lowest rung right from 1961-62. The annual per capita income in 2010-11 worked out to Rs 21,734 which is much below the national average of Rs 35,993.
A low and declining level of investments in the central sector has also contributed to the backwardness of the State. The share of State in the gross investment fund of the central public sector undertaking has been rapidly declining. While in 1975-76, the percentage was 30.66, which declined to 8.24 per cent in 1990-91. The investment in private projects in 1995-96 in the state was also the lowest (2.68 per cent).
The infrastructure of roads, irrigation and power needs a great deal of strengthening for the development of the state. The index of infrastructure for erstwhile state was 81.33 in 1999 as against 187.57 for Punjab. The bifurcation of the state has further brought down the infrastructure index. In power sector, there is a transmission and distribution mess. In the year 2009-10, there was electricity deficit of around 8 percent, which was much above Orissa (-0.09 per cent). The percentage of habitation connected by pucca road is lower (61 per cent) than the national average (74per cent) in 2011.
There has been declining public investments in agriculture also which resulted in erosion of productivity potential of the State. The state of irrigation facilities is also very poor in Jharkhand. Only 7 percent of the total sown area is under irrigation with no improvements in performance.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s stunted growth syndrome has put the state’s finance in jeopardy. The poor financial capacity of the State is reflected starkly in its per capita plan outlays, which was only Rs. 17 during the First Five Year Plan in erstwhile Bihar. However, it worked out to almost three times for Maharashtra (Rs. 48) and Haryana (Rs. 47) during the same plan period. The per capita plan outlay in the state continued to remain the lowest in the subsequent plan periods too and in the Ninth Plan it was Rs. 701 as against Rs 4,791, in Gujarat, Rs 4,756 in Maharashtra and Rs 3,765 in Punjab.
Highlighting the State present crisis, it revealed that the planning commission working paper series 2012 concludes that even within BIMARU states, Jharkhand is a laggard and ranks among the third tier states in terms of each of the three indexes. Jharkhand’s woes do not end here. It further adds that Jharkhand is not only a laggard but unlike Bihar, the state is also not on a trajectory for development.
So Special Category Status is the only way to help Jharkhand in turning around the present social and economic situation and bring rapid human development. Conceptually, Special Category Status is a provision to help a state which is otherwise unable to join the mainstream of development in the country. Sources reveal that President has shown his positive consent over the matter.