It’s a bombshell of sort dropped by the Economic Survey 2016-17 tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday as Odisha is rated the 5th poorest-governed State in the country by figuring among the likes of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, J&K, Bihar and Jharkhand. Even, north-eastern States like Tripura and Assam stood a notch higher than Odisha.
In a new typical analysis done by the Eco-Survey 2016-17, where it analysed how the central gross devolution termed as Redistributive Resources Transfer (RRT) has any positive impact on a State’s GSDP, per capita consumption, fiscal status, and whether resources poor States bearing out what it termed the ‘resource curse’ on its governance. On the governance structure as a whole, Odisha and Jharkhand, resource richest States in country, trail behind resource poorest State like Tripura. It showed the chinks about the poor governance index of Odisha, which could be termed as a sort of ‘governance curse’ on ‘resource-rich people’. This link clearly alludes to how poor governance is responsible for prevailing of poor living standards in Odisha.
The survey in the co-relation test of governance index vis-a-vis per capita mineral value of a State puts Odisha at 5th nationally by assigning a value of mere 60, despite having per capita mineral value of around `6,500 at 2013-14 value, which is number two in the country.
Significantly, Jharkhand, number one in per capita mineral value nationally, also scored exactly a value of 60 in the governance index. And, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh scored a high of around 90 in the governance index, despite a per capita mineral value of around `3,000. Interestingly, Chhattisgarh, Odisha’s competitor, number three with over `6,200 per capita mineral value, scored a better rank than Odisha by remaining above the national average of 70 in the governance index.
Other significant revelations are: Odisha tops in the country among all non special category States in receiving per capita gross devolution or per capita RRT. With 12th nationally, Odisha is only behind special category States like north-eastern States, J&K and Uttarakhand.This assumes significance when the State ruling party is going to the town tom-toming the step-motherly treatment of the Centre in devolution of financial resources to the State on political considerations.