The maiden meeting of the State Development Council (SDC), the apex plan making body of the State, backed the importance of agriculture sector looking at Jharkhand’s geographical, social and economic condition. Members of the council were of the view that the primary sector can ably support the huge population base residing in villages along with allied activities like animal husbandry, fishery and horticulture.
Informing about the deliberations taken place inside, a senior BJP legislator confided that there was difference of opinion on this issue between experts and people representatives.
“Economist Surjeet Bhalla was particular about developing infrastructure so that more investment can come in the field of industry etc. But larger opinion was for the promotion of agriculture and allied activities. I stressed that we should not copy other states in budget making and development of rural areas and providing sufficient support for agriculture and allied activities should be on priority. Our plans should be in accordance with ground realities,” said the MlA.
Many MlAs and MPs stressed over improving the relationship between the legislature and executive. “T Nand Kumar made an intervention that delivery mechanism of the Government machinery is week. I said that the local MlA is the best person to report about such shortcomings but when we report no follow up action takes place. The bureaucratic setup has to trust the representatives a bit more,” said MlA Radha Krishna Kishore.
All the participants were of the view that the State has lagged behind on the path of development in comparison to other states and also in terms of national average and thus needed a thrust.
“For that we need lot more resources. The SDC members agreed that public-private partnership model can be adopted for irrigation and related farm sectors as well. It has been agreed upon that the Government machinery would work in that direction,” said Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar who along with his companions in Parliament such as Ravindra Rai, Ravindra Pandey, PN Singh, Vidhyut Baran Mahto and laxman Gilua attended the meeting on Tuesday.
Chairman of the SDC Chief Minister Raghubar Das in his concluding remarks admitted that the State needed to work for agriculture sector on priority basis. “Agriculture is going to be our priority. It is not only confined to grain production but whole lot of allied activities such as dairy, fishery, horticulture would be made lifeline of rural economy. The next budget would see a reflection of this,” said the CM. He, on the occasion, underlined the works done for irrigation like ‘dova’ construction, renovation of 300 old ponds in the villages.
The Council is meant to discuss ways of poverty alleviation in the State and prepare a vision for the overall development of Jharkhand for next 15 years. This apart, the SDC having experts like Surjeet Bhalla and T Nand Kumar on board, would come up with a five-year strategy and three-year action plan in order to prepare short, medium and long term goals for the State.
The CM also admitted lapses on the part of execution and said that daily action plan with measurable goals would come into force. “The Government is keen on improving delivery mechanism which is lacking in the State. There is no denying that we are lagging on several counts. The Government is also willing to make sub-committees out of this SDC that would not only set small targets but also prepare roadmaps and establish coordination among the departments. Officials would have to go to fields and ensure execution,” said Das.
Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, Development Commissioner Amit Khare and Principal Secretary to the CM Sanjay Kumar were present on the occasion.
Although MlAs and MPs from major Opposition parties such as JMM and JVM distanced themselves from the meeting along with AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto, who has been named as vice-chairman of the Council, Marxist-Coordination’s Arup Chatterjee, CPI-Ml’s Raj Kumar Yadav and Congress’ Badal Patralekh were present in the meeting. Several BJP legislators, Mayors and representatives of urban local bodies also attended it.