Bhaskar Parichha
In what could be termed as political sagacity, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded a special economic package for the entire eastern region at the 24th Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting. Batting for the east zone of the country is interesting and this reminds one of the late Biju Patnaik who in his heydays spearheaded a movement against the center.
Just as Biju was the darling of the states, Naveen too has donned the role of a champion of cooperative federalism. What Naveen argued in the EZC meeting is absolutely credible. One, the eastern region lags in many sectors despite being endowed with natural and mineral resources. Two, the entire eastern region is underdeveloped in terms of teledensity, railway network, and banking density compared to other zones and therefore needs a special economic package for road and rail network development.
What’s more, the prime objectives of the Zonal Council are to develop healthy inter-state and Centre-state relations and, consequently, there is a need for financial, infrastructural and technological integration.If a nationwide analysis is done for teledensity, banking, rail, and road density, the east zone would be at the bottom in all these subjects that are in the Union list.
Naveen reiterated that there is a need to double the allotments made to this region so that they catch up to the national benchmarks. That was the strong point Naveen made at the meeting. He also emphasized the fact that the eastern Zone – consisting of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha – contributes maximum to the mineral wealth of the country and ensures security for the manufacturing and energy sectors. And, obviously, the fruits of this wealth should boost the economic growth of the region.
The other contentious point is the revision of coal royalty. Naveen said there is an urgent need to review this and also the share of clean energy cess with the state governments. It may be mentioned that royalty on coal has not been revised since 2012. Surely, all the participant states demanded coal royalty revision. Naveen also lamented the delay in releasing grants to urban local bodies and non-release of subsidy for paddy procurement causing problems to farmers. The very last point he made was on language.
Stating that the region has some of the largest scheduled areas of the country, he reiterated the demand for inclusion of Ho, Bhumij and Mundari languages in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution. Issues such as inter-state water rows, power transmission lines, land & forest clearance of rail projects, investigation of heinous offenses and cattle smuggling across country’s borders figured during the EZC meet.
As for his own state, Naveen urged that Odisha be declared a “Special Focus State” in view of frequent natural disasters faced by the state and its vulnerability to natural calamity.
In the backdrop of the non-BJP states demanding more funds and more leverage from the center, this meet certainly assumes significance.The demands from the four states in the EZC are unlikely to be sidelined by the center given their politico-economic implications.