By Our Special Correspondent
Shillong: Students and faculty of IIM Shillong were of the firm opinion that the Planning Commission should monitor how the funds it allocates for different states are spent and whether the spending is judicious.
They were reacting to a presentation on the 12th Plan and the way forward made by Harsh Srivastava, Advisor Planning Commission.
On Friday last IIM Shillong hosted Harsh Srivastava, Adviser to the Planning Commission of India for a special lecture on “The making of India’s 12th five year plan and how Meghalaya can benefit from the Plan”. The 1995 batch IIM Ahmedabad alumni presented an overview of the allocations of the Planning Commission. He said that while India is doing well in some sectors the indicators in nutrition and maternal mortality are as bad as Sub-Saharan Africa.
Srivastava who is currently the Independent Director at Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship and a Consultant for the Planning Commission of India since July 2010 stressed on the need to increase productivity in the ongoing 12th Plan and said this could only be achieved by better governance at all levels.
“People have aspirations and they are impatient. They have high expectations from Governments and people have every right to hold their state governments accountable for how the funds allocated by the Planning Commission are spent,” Srivastava said.
Srivastava said the Planning Commission would increase spending by 2.25 times in renewable energy, nutrition, banking, healthcare and other social sectors. He also said that with the government’s support of FDI, spending on infrastructure by the private sector would increase.
Lauding the Government of Meghalaya on the recent growth measures, Srivastava however, pointed that the biggest challenge for Meghalaya is to increase the net per capita income, attract private investors for building infrastructure.
Interestingly, Harsh Srivastava drew the attention of the audience to the fact that Meghalaya failed to attract funds for creating urban infrastructure because of its inability to meet certain demands such as an elected urban body.
The Planning Commission Consultant pointed to the growing traffic jams in Shillong and said the Government of Meghalaya has to work closely with people to overcome the challenges. He however, stated that the Integrated Basin Development Livelihood Project (IBDLP) proposed by the Meghalaya Government to the Planning Commission was seen as a model livelihood project which is why Meghalaya’s allocation this time was a whopping Rs 3940 crore.
Following his presentation Srivastava fielded several incisive questions from the IIM students and faculty. One question that repeatedly came up was about the Planning Commissions lack of monitoring and evaluation of projects sanctioned.
The common refrain was that of the Commission could allocate funds then it also carried the onus of checking how those funds are used. Some suggested social auditing mechanisms which should be built into the schemes and projects.
Srivastava defended the Commission saying that respective ministries should monitor how funds were used. He however admitted that the questions from the students were extremely focused and intelligent. “ I was at Indian School of Business, Mohali (Chandigarh) but I must say the questions I was asked here shows that IIM Shillong is way ahead of most B –Schools.” Srivastava said.