Nation needs new
direction, says CM KCR
Vanam Jwala
Narasimha Rao
The Hans India
(18-03-2019)
Chief Minister Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao during the first week of
March last year for the first time advocated the need of a qualitative change in the
country’s governance scenario, which has been in a rut for the past 70 years
and hinted at he himself leading the emerging alternative. He said the present
political atmosphere in the country at the national level lacked novelty and
innovation in their thinking and working. He believed that the demand for
change for the better would come from people and the leadership to bring about
such qualitative change would emerge automatically as was done in the past. On the proposed political alternative
at the national level, the CM said, what is important is not which alternative
will emerge but there is a simmering discontent among the people on both the
national parties.
A
year later, sharing his thoughts in the form of National Concerns with the
Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission during his visit to
Hyderabad in February this year, KCR literally spelt out the likely philosophy
of his campaign in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections.
As
a nation mentioned the CM that, India needs to introspect where it stands in
comparison to many contemporary nations. A paradigm shift in the institutional
structure and official business processing is the need of hour. For instance, if
only 40,000 TMC of water out of 70,000 TMC available in India could be utilized
entire 40 crore acres of arable land in India can be provided irrigation by
traditional means alone. By following efficient irrigation systems such as
drip, sprinkler and piped irrigation, the task of universal irrigation could be
achieved. The 5.5 crore acres (14%) of agricultural land which is currently under
canal irrigation needs to be increased multi-fold.
The
main impediments for water sector projects like inter-State issues, legal
hurdles, delays in land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement, poor
project planning and implementation have to be overcome. Inter-State River
Water Dispute Tribunals which take decades to give their verdict are to be made
more functional so that they expedite giving the verdict. A permanent River
Water Dispute Tribunal has to be set up. If legal process is time consuming and
insensitive to the national concerns, an alternative dispute resolution
mechanism could be set-up.
There
is a need to take institutional initiative encouraging the States concerned to
discuss the issues and come around to accept a mutually beneficial solution. CM
cited the living example of Telangana’s Kaleshwaram project which is the result
of such negotiated agreements in water sector that successfully resolved
differences in water sector with Maharashtra and Karnataka. Preventing frivolous
Public Interest Litigations is another issue CM highlighted.
Stressing
on leveraging economy, wealth and inner strength of India, CM quoted the
example of China which consistently is maintaining a high growth rate since 1979
due to its proactive and visionary approach. East Asian Tigers like South
Korea, Singapore and Taiwan and ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, etc., achieved miraculous growth.
Japan rose from ashes to become a country with one of the highest per capita incomes
in the world. Country needs a new direction as 70 years have passed since
independence and still, the people are struggling for basic minimum needs. CM
suggested that national agenda has to be changed since routine budgets year
after year and usual methods and conventional thinking will not bring any big
changes. The country has to get rid of poverty of thought and plan big instead
of incremental thinking! Out of the box thinking is the need of the hour.
States
are to be empowered by setting a development-centric national agenda and move
away from centralization. India needs a new economic model that has States at
the forefront. Growth of the States is the growth of country. If the country
has to grow and achieve its potential each State has to grow duly leveraging
its resources and potential. States need to be given more space to prioritize
issues at their level. Including of numerous Centrally sponsored schemes in the
subjects listed under the State List has to be changed.
States
expressed the view that the Concurrent List has been operated by the Union in a
monopolistic and unilateral manner as if it were a second Union List. On the subjects
listed in the Concurrent List, most of the laws are made by Parliament like
criminal law, forests, bankruptcy, trade unions, welfare of labour, legal,
medical and other professions, education, electricity, etc. Even some of the
subjects which were earlier in the State List like education, forests, weights
and measures, protection of wild animals and birds and administration of
justice, were also brought to Concurrent List by 42nd Amendment Act
of 1976, thus restricting the subjects of the States further. As suggested by Sarkaria
Commission that in cases of proposed legislation on a subject in the Concurrent
List, prior consultations are to be held with State governments individually
and collectively in the Inter State Council.
Agriculture,
education, health, urban development, rural development, housing, drinking
water, sanitation, and women and child welfare are subjects which are best left
to be handled by State governments. Large number of Central sector and
Centrally sponsored schemes and sub- schemes should entirely be handled by
States as per local priorities. Though there is a provision of devolution of 42
% of the Tax Revenue (GTR) of the Union, in actual terms, this has never been
achieved. The devolved share has been only around a third of GTR. This is
mainly due to significant percentage of cesses in the GTR, which are outside
the divisible pool.
India
needs economic reforms to improve Ease of Doing Business, attract foreign
investments, and resolve issues that hinder growth. For example, removing
bottlenecks by improving container handling capacity and turn-around time at
ports, improving average speed on National Highways and freight traffic on
rail, reducing time to get customs clearance, etc., will improve business
environment.
India’s
infrastructure status is far from satisfactory. If country has to grow faster,
we need to improve our infrastructure significantly by spending at least 3- 4 %
of GDP every year additionally in our infrastructure sector. To achieve this, country
needs structural reforms for higher FDI inflows. These include developing SEZs
like China, stable tax regime and no retrospective changes in laws. Country also
needs to bring out an attractive and practical tax amnesty scheme for bringing
black money to the country and to invest it in infrastructure. Every Indian
should be a proud tax payer and partner in nation building. He may voluntarily
pay even if it is just 1 Rupee.
Investment
Support of Rs.10,000/- per acre (at the rate of Rs.5,000/- per crop per season
for both Kharif and Rabi) as in Telangana will be a step in the right direction
to address the distress in the sector. Increase MSP by Rs.500/- or 1/3rd
more of existing MSP. Thereafter the MSP should be increased every year by
linking it to the price index as in case of employees’ dearness allowance. Based
on agro-climatic advantage of each area, there should be area-wise crop colonies
to grow specific crops.
(Source: Broad
National Interests and Concerns
Of CM KCR shared
with 15th Finance Commission)
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