South Odisha remains poorest in the state: Odisha Economic Survey 2011-12

Does South Odisha deserve this?
RP Tripathy

Source: The Sambad

Notwithstanding the tall claims of the State Government, its policies have failed comprehensively to dent poverty in the 10 Southern Districts of Odisha. And, this doesn't come as a surprise for the people barring the fact that, now the State Government's own Economic Survey reveals this ignominious fact. But, the politics of the state is such that the state government is still scratching the surface with Rs2 a kilo rice and other such schemes thinking that some invisible hand will address the development challenges of South Odisha. With more than half of its population living below the starvation line, there is very little that the state government can claim to have offered to this underdeveloped region. South Odisha is still grappling with challenges of malnutrition, education, health, rail & road connectivity, industrialization etc with little evidence that these public goods have shown any sign of improvement.  The rate of urbanization has been extremely slow in the region and lack of urbanization and absence of gainful industrial employment has led to large scale forced-migrations from South Odisha to the neighboring states. While Regional Development Councils have been formed elsewhere, the state government has been completely cold on the demand for formation of South Odisha Development Council. Similarly, there is hardly any sincerity shown over the years for harnessing the river-water potential of the region (Mahanadi-Rushikulya-Vamsadhara river linking project is gather dust) to overcome repeated droughts and improve agricultural productivity and this has allowed the neighboring states to come up with massive river dam projects in the boarder areas to divert this resource. While this picture can be reversed if the state government genuinely wishes so; the failure to address this would prove costlier. The Maoists are already well-entrenched in the region and the area under their influence is rising fast. Deprivation and underdevelopment have resulted in separate statehood demands in several states. If the state government continues with its business-as-usual approach, there are no dearth of examples to show that South Odisha will go the same way.
Related news  from The Pioneer

The extent of the poverty in southern and northern region of the State is still high and remains a matter of concern even as the poverty percentage points reduced to 29.69  per cent. According to the Odisha Economic Survey, 2011-12 report, even after sixty-four years of independence, the State witnesses wide regional and social disparities in development. All regions have not developed uniformly so far. The annual report, which was circulated in the State Assembly on Thursday on the eve of the Budget for the fiscal 2012-13 was to be presented by the Finance Minister on Friday, pointed out that the rural-urban gap remained larger than the all-India average. As per the 66th round of NSS, poverty declined in all NSS regions of the State. However, the coastal region has the lowest incidence of poverty while this time the incidence of poverty is the highest in the southern and the northern regions, the report said. Though poverty ratio has reduced in the State due to the development initiatives like Revised Long Term Action Plan, Biju KBK Plan, Biju Kandhamal O Gajapati Yojana, Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana, Backward Region Grant Fund and Western Odisha Development Council for faster development of backward regions, the State is yet to develop uniformly. As far as poverty is concerned, Odisha is still above national level but in declining trend according to NSS data of the 66th round, while the poverty percentage point was 39.90 in 2004-05, there was a further reduction of 10.21 percentage points from 39.90 per cent to 29.69 percent in 2009-10.