With the arrival of the Prime Minister to dedicate the state of the art oil refinery, expectations were high on him that he would announce schemes to solve some of the problems of Odisha, but after his address, the people have been left disappointed.
The PM was expected to declaring a result- oriented roadmap along with a special package for linking development initiatives in the State. He was also expected to express concern for the growing farmer suicides in the State, which still remains unabated in the State and growing marginalisation of tribal in accessing development benefits. But there remains only a recipe of misplaced agenda.
The Prime Minister dealt upon issues like development works and initiatives for 2022 when India will celebrate 75 years of independence and turning Paradip into ‘Vikash Deep’ towards unleashing prosperity in the State. The Prime Minster as usual in his speech floated a new concept ‘personal sector’ in addition to the existing ‘private’ and ‘public ‘sector’, which would play a very crucial role in bringing in employment opportunities. But the Prime Minister’s new concept seems to reflect the galvanisation of Odisha on ‘personal’, completive and populist politics in taking credit, instead of stressing the need of individuals in terms of employment opportunities.
The recent data provided by the Odisha Government claims that nearly 1, 35,713 workers migrated from different districts due to lack of adequate employment opportunities. In addition to this, what is more distressing is that only on an average 34 of days of employment were created in the State. This context itself warrants the immediate attention of the Central Government towards making the Prime Minister’s idea of ‘Vikash Deep.’
The other crucial aspect of the Prime Minister was on the energy security and even the entire function was named as ‘Urja Utsav’. looking at the grassroots reality, the Prime Minster could have addressed the perennial problem of lack of adequate electricity facilities in Odisha. Nearly 18 lakh poor households (41 per cent of total BPl households in the State) and a whopping figure of 35.35 lakh are still in grip of darkness due to lack of electricity connection.
The Prime Minister in his speech claimed credit for his Government in providing 11 lakh lPG connections in last one year in contrast to 26 lakh in last six decades. As per the latest data, there are around one crore households in Odisha, and the number of gas connections is only 25 lakh. Only 27 per cent population in the State has access to lPG connection against the national average of 60 per cent. This policy agenda towards energy security must be sensitive towards the stark reality in days to come.
The Prime Minister must ensure a concrete policy roadmap in bringing nearly 87 per cent of population in the State from using wood as fuel towards alternative source of energy through solar and lPG. This would be the best form of inclusiveness in the much talked about ‘Vikash Deep’. The other point which requires immediate attention is above 85 per cent of people are in dire need of food security through PDS. They need to be include in the NFSA.
Hopefully, the upcoming visit of Prime Minister to Odisha for farmer’s rally and national budget will address existing serious ‘development deficits’ and provide a sustained policy solution to translate the Prime Minister’s vision.
(The authors work extensively on development issues. Views expressed are personal)