last two months of July and August opened a Pandora’s box in Odisha, throwing out many sad stories of poverty and underdevelopment such as abject child malnutrition deaths in a hilltop tribal village of Nagada , hungry poor people of Kasipur sticking to mango-kernel eating habit, and a Kalahandi tribal carrying his wife’s dead body all alone on his shoulders from hospital to home for no ambulance.
The dead wife carrying issue of Dana Majhi, even caught the international attention with Prime Minister of Baharain, declaring financial aid. In between the deprivation issues, the Mahanadi water scarcity problem surfaced in Odisha due to barrage construction of Chhatisgarh Government. July also witnessed lots of hue and cry due to mistaken firing of innocent tribal and Dalit villagers in Baliguda subdivision by SOG Jawans. Now, “teacher on call” appointment policy of the State Government is attracting criticism from the Opposition. To cap it all, the last scene of August was the sting operation against four BJD MlAs who have been caught in camera for corporate graft.
The hectic July and August months will naturally leave its spillover impact on September. But political analysts are expecting some new issues to emerge in September. There is seasonality calendar of issues in all States and the local Governments usually respond to these issues with preparedness. Odisha has also a calendar of issues .This comprises flood seasons from July to September, cyclone season from October to November, starvation season during March-June, dengue/malaria season in June-Sept etc.
The issues that surfaced in Odisha over last two months varied in their perspectives. The Baliguda police firing issue, which relates to national security dimension, was the unintended outcome of the fight against left Wing Extremism. The solution to the issue lies only in adopting strict adherence to standard operating procedure by the SOG. Neither the Union nor the State Government can change their combating approach against lWE and if that approach prevails, there shall be certain unintended fallouts which citizens have to bear. It cannot be guaranteed that there shall not be any repetition of such mistaken firings in future by the police.
All the hue and cry of the Opposition has no effect on the issue, except raising awareness of policemen and gaining some political mileage. If BJP or Congress were to form the next State Government, such mistaken firing could not be ruled out. Thus it is an issue having no governance relevance and needs a police solution. The real issue of Kandhamal is poverty and communal disharmony that no one talks about, even after the Supreme Court verdict on increased compensation to riot victims was given. Thus no one seems to be serious about the Kandhamal people. The Mahanadi water scarcity issue is a genuine issue, though it surfaced late. Water conflict is now- a- days common among riparian States. Odisha’s water share from the interstate rivers needs to be defined and protected. Though the resolution of water dispute is an interstate Governmental affairs or tribunal subject, mass mobilization always helps to put pressure on the erring Governments. Though the BJD continued its political mobilization programme on Mahanadi alone, Opposition in Odisha was building a relevant all party-coalition initiative on the Mahanadi river water. Besides, Opposition had rightly given a call to the ruling BJD to join all party protest against the Chhatisgarh Government. While the process was going on well and a demand was sent by all opposition parties to the President of India through the Governor, the Congress pulled out of all-party league due to internal leadership conflicts. While all parties could come forward for passing GST Bill or for Jammu& Kashmir peace, then why not Congress thought it relevant to go for all party fight for Mahanadi water for OdishaIJ The Mahandi issue thus lost greater political energy and is left to the State Government to handle. The all-party initiative just ended in a whimper.
The issues like Nagada, Kasipur and Dana Majhi relate to development. But these are not new issues. These issues shall continue to exist unless a serious reform is implemented even if the opposition BJP or Congress comes to power in Odisha. It is easy to criticize the ruling party on these issues, but is difficult to find a lasting solution.
However, it is praiseworthy that such development issues are reported by media and are taken up by the Opposition. But how to mitigate these underdevelopment issues is a moot questionIJ There are several hilltop villages in Odisha like Nagada and there are several poverty groups who eat mango-kernel or leaves and roots in scarce seasons. Stories of doctor-less hospitals and bamboo –sling ambulance are vivid. Teacher on Call system is a national system to address teachers’ shortfall. Non-employment of new young Government employees and extension of age of retirement is a formula given by the World Bank and the IMF to cut sarkari-non-planned expenditure and liabilities. Thus, both the Union Government and State Government are responsible for the underdevelopment of citizens and the national economic policies are responsible for creating 30 per cent of population as “ultra-poor”.
However, the State Governments cannot absolve their constitutional responsibilities of formulating and implementing policies on State listed and concurrent listed subjects.
As far as a poor State like Odisha is concerned, it has three options to intervene to effect inclusive development. The first option is to prioritize zones and villages that are isolated. The Government must identify the inaccessible and poor-communicated clusters and villages. In this context, Justice Mohanty Commission’s report on regional imbalance should be taken up in addition to Tribal Sub Plan and KBK region cutoff villages. Justice Mohanty panel has identified inaccessible villages/blocks of both non-coastal and coastal districts, challenging the traditional belief that the coastal blocks are developed ones.
The second intervention to effect inclusive development is to target backward groups who are STs and SCs. The highly SC and ST populated districts like Mayurbhanja, Keonjhar, Sundergarh, Koraput, Rayagada, Nawarnagapur, Malkanagiri, Kandhamal , Gajapati and Ganjam should be targeted. Just like Tribal Sub Plan, the State Government should give focus on “SC Sub-Plan”. land entitlements, NTFP price protection, Forest land Rights and Horticulture promotion with marketing facility should be fostered in such districts.
The third intervention is related to schemes and sector reforms. There is problem of quality delivery of public health and public education services in rural areas of all States. Inaccessible and poor States like Odisha have greater challenges in implementing health and educational services. To address problem of non-availability of doctors in rural medicals, the State Government has to create a cader of para-medical diploma holders with a specialized training of 3 years after +2 science education to work as quasi-doctors in TSP blocks. It will solve the issue of non availability of doctors in rural areas as for most of the diseases one does not need specialists. The solution does not lie in opening a big medical college in tribal districts with corporate assistance. Similarly, to fill up the post of teachers, the State Government has no option but to simplify the syllabus up to Standard -8 (14 years of age) which the local untrained teachers can handle. The primary and secondary teachers need to be streamlined with elimination of multiple cader systems.
As district is the ground unit of administration in India, the district Collectors’ performance shall contribute to the inclusive development of people of the district. There are many district Collectors in Odisha , like Puri Collector Aravind Agrawal, who are good enough in enforcing administrative reforms but some have to set directions. At the 314 block level, there is need for more convergence and monitoring of development schemes on monthly basis by a team under local tehsildar/ Sub-Collector and consisting of BDO, BEO, CDPO, medical officer of CHC/PHC, AE ( Civil),AEO, AE (RWSS), range officer(Forest) and IIC of local PS.
There are two views on the Secretary –level supervision theory. While one view suggests that the Secretaries should visit districts to review development work on monthly or bi-monthly basis, the other view objects to it by stating that it would kill the independence of the district Collectors. But the Chief Secretary has to set district wise targets and allow one Secretary to visit a district once in two months to assess the progress and similar monitoring mechanism should be done by the district Collectors by visiting blocks. Digital monitoring systems need to be developed. A serious reform in development administration is needed in Odisha to achieve inclusive development along with GSDP targets.