Finance Commn must ponder over inter-state equality: CM
| Date :05-Jul-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
Chief Minister Kamal Nath was interacting with the Finance Commission on State’s expectations at the Mantralaya
CHIEF Minister Kamal Nath has appealed the 15th Finance Commission to think about inter-state equality going beyond the Centre-State relationship. While interacting with the Finance Commission on State’s expectations at Mantralaya on Thursday, Kamal Nath urged the Finance Commission to define the pattern of cooperative federal with a fresh approach. The Chief Minister said that every State has its own strengths and one cannot be compared with others on the basis of one size-fits-all parameter. Therefore, this approach should be kept in mind while dealing with resources of the State. He said that the resource of a State is also resource of the country of which all states are stakeholders. Therefore, states should be compensated for maintaining and augmenting their resources. The Chief Minister said that Madhya Pradesh is a tribal dominated and mineral rich State. The forest wealth is very rich in MP. It cannot be compared to other states.
The Finance Commission must keep this in mind. He said that the revenue spent on saving forest resources is not only a great review loss but also loss of revenue generating opportunities. The Finance Commission should consider how it could be compensated. Madhya Pradesh’s forests have an important role in mitigating impact of climate change and Madhya Pradesh is not the only State at the risk of climate change ill-effects. The Chief Minister said that due to maintenance of forests, development activities are minimal. About one crore tribal people inhabit forest. In absence of development opportunities, extremism emerges. The Chief Minister said that in absence of economic activities urbanisation process remains slow. It has an impact in village and urban life simultaneously leading to income disparity. The Chief Minister said that Madhya Pradesh is a mineral-rich state but in last two decades, there is only one policy for all minerals. There should be a mineral specific separate policy. Sharing his thoughts on sharing of taxes, the Chief Minister said that the method of tax revenue sharing needs to be re-looked. If it does not happen then disparities between states will rise. He said that the states must have share in collection of cess and surcharge by the Centre. Sharing expectations of the State on agriculture sector, the Chief Minister said that second agricultural revolution is needed. He said that due to absence of remunerative prices despite high production and productivity, condition of farmers has not improved expectedly. Cost of cultivation increases manifold and mechanism of minimum support price remains helpless. Farmers fall into debt cycle and expected results of the Government’s efforts elude. Chairman of Finance Commission N K Singh, agreeing to the views of the Chief Minister, said that the 14th Finance Commission had focused on forest conservation and compensation. He also agreed that there should be a separate policy for each mineral. He expressed concern over the State’s poor performance in human development, especially in education and health. Singh also expressed surprise over the fact that even after reportedly higher agricultural growth rate of Madhya Pradesh, its reflection in poverty eradication is not evident. Members of the Finance Commission Ajay Narayan Jha, Ramesh Chandra, Ashok Lahiri, Anoop Singh and Member Secretary of the Commission Arvind Mehta and senior officials of the State were present.