Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 1
Nagaland is currently celebrating her biggest festival the Hornbill Festival but behind the scenes is a sad reality – the State has landed at the bottom of India’s economic growth during the 11th 5-year Plan. The State of Nagaland has managed only 6.2% of the 9.3% it set as the target for the 11th Five Year Plan which commenced in 2007 and ended on March 31, 2012.
The economic growth index of Nagaland is at the bottom with Manipur and Punducherry, summarizing the only states in India that registered below 11 percent of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) targets set for the Plan fiscal years.
The Planning Commission of India has released its much-awaited report on the performance of the States during the 11th Five Year Plan. The Morung Express obtained the detailed GSDP report of the commission November 30. Once called the most lawless State in India, a revived Bihar has emerged the biggest winner with a economic growth index of 21.9 percent surpassing even the big four Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
The growth of the North East Region States during the 11th Five Year Plan was extremely competitive. Unfortunately, the results for Nagaland stood bottom. The three biggest winners from the North East Region are Megahalaya, Sikkim and Mizoram. Meghalaya set a goal of 7.3 percent and achieved an index of 8.1 percent during the 5 year Plan. Likewise, Mizoram set a goal of 7.1 percent and made huge dividends – it achieved 11.0 percent. Sikkim set a target of 6.7 percent and broke the race with a huge 22.8 percent. Even Tripura, a State considered far below Nagaland’s economic stature, achieved 8.7 percent, far beyond its target of 6.9 percent.
Arunachal Pradesh set a target of 6.4 percent and achieved a remarkable 9.4 percent during its 11th Five Year Plane stint. Assam set a target of 6.5 percent and managed to achieve 6.9 of its goal.
Even Manipur landed a big bite by achieving 6.5 percent of the 5.9 percent target it set for the 11th Plan. By a stark coincidence, Nagaland’s target was the biggest, at 9.3 percent, but achieved only 6.2 percent. The All-India GDP was 7.9 percent.
Of the states and union territories, Bihar emerged the top performer – and among the major states – in terms of economic growth during the 11th Five Year Plan. According to the Planning Commission’s report on state finances, only Sikkim and Goa, which are much smaller in size than Bihar, have performed better than the state in fact.
The commission’s report revealed that the nominal GSDP growth rate of Bihar figured at 21.9 per cent during the 11th Plan. Interestingly, the major states including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh managed just over 20 per cent GSDP growth rate. Among all the states and union territories, Sikkim recorded highest GSDP growth rate of 31.6 per cent during the five year period followed by Goa which secured a growth index of 22.9 per cent.
The commission’s report shows that Jharkhand, which recorded GSDP growth rate of 9.2 per cent, Puducherry, Nagaland and Manipur performed the worst during the plan – all of them secured below 11 per cent.
Among the major states, Haryana achieved a GSDP growth rate of 19.5 per cent. Rajasthan followed closely behind with 18 per cent while Kerala secured 16.9 per cent. Likewise Madhya Pradesh secured 16.8 per cent growth rate while Andhra Pradesh secured 16.7 per cent and West Bengal 16.4 per cent.
The Planning Commission’s report has been released in three principal components: ‘Inclusive Growth’, ‘Social Sector’ and ‘Agriculture, Rural Development, Industry, Services and Physical Infrastructure.’ The report observes that Nagaland is the only State that has a share of developmental expenditure less than the all-States average among the Special Category States. Nagaland’s growth target for the 11th five year plan was 8.4 (Agriculture), 8.0 (Industry), 10.0 (services) and 9.3 (GSDP growth). The report also observed that the late participation of states such as Nagaland and Sikkim deprived the region of the benefits of strategies adopted for infrastructure improvement and basic minimum service.
The reports also have socio-economic indicators that reflect the State’s overall performance. In ‘Social Sector’, the report states that the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population in the State’s rural areas is 40.04% out of the all-India ratio of 27.01 percent. The urban BPL population is 7.47% out of the all-India ratio of 23.62%. Nagaland’s BPL population has increased from 2.9 lakhs to 4.0 lakhs in the past three decades, one of the reports said. Further, female literacy rate is particularly low in Haryana (21.5 percent), Bihar (31.5 percent), Nagaland (33.3 percent) and Jammu & Kashmir (34.9 percent).
A small but interesting info bite the commission highlighted in a box in one of its report was this: ‘In Chizami village in Phek district, the ICDS center runs from a dank and cold building. There, children receive two Glucose biscuits as SNP.’ The number of BPL in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Nagaland has actually increased, the Planning Commission’s reports added.
