By K.L.Tariang
There is a substantial increase in the Plan Budget outlay of the Government of Meghalaya for the year 2014-15 as compared to the previous year. This obviously means aiming towards more development . The general perception however is that the development objectives as magnificently prescribed down the years are not reached and belie expectation and development remains an elusive dream for the vast majority of common people. But since bringing in more funds is a matter of pride to those responsible, the system will persist and there is hardly any scope or the time for assessment of public perceptions and to act upon these.
Notably, the budget proposal for the Health sector is buoyed up significantly. This would surely please everybody because after all health is important for human well being and quality of life. It is not difficult to see that there is still a marked inadequacy of public health services in the state especially in the rural areas .There is a large urban-rural gap in its availability while overall the gap in health between the rich and the poor remain very wide. Moreover , some of the basic health issues such as high infant mortality rates, poor child nutrition and health care, prevalence rate of communicable diseases, besides many other basic health issues particularly in the rural areas leave much to be desired. Therefore a significant hike in the budget allocation on this sector would seem to indicate that the state government aims to tackle the inadequacies and alleviate these basic health issues . However , in the process, the direction towards spending needs to correlate with the ground realities in order to achieve universal coverage for all in a comprehensive provision of health care . We perhaps need to refrain from building health care infrastructure without first providing adequate services in such infrastructure. It is pointless buying costly health machineries and equipments when they are not utilised or in establishing expensive health units which do not function. While we judiciously move towards building health facilities we cannot also forget the old adage, “Prevention is better than cure.” Many families in the rural areas and perhaps quite a number of urban families too are still unaware that the simple act of boiling water before drinking can prevent water borne diseases. Nor are they aware of the administration of the simple oral rehydration theraphy or of basic health hygienes . This therefore calls for serious attention to preventive and public health action through extensive and intensive approaches . Secondly,there are still many under served areas out of daily reach of regular health functionaries . It is here that the village health workers can play an essential role in primary health care. These “barefoot doctors” can contibute much to health outcomes if due importance is given to them with adequate remuneration, regular training , updating their knowledge and with provision of essential kits . Thirdly , medicines especially for the poor and underprivileged need to be made available in the public health institutions . Private out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines is not only unaffordable for the poor but is bound to have a regressive effect in the long run. While we move towards Health Insurance it is however not truly a means towards reaching the goal of universal health. It would rather indicate an over expectation of people to get sick and to be hospitalised in private hospitals whereas this can be largely avoided if government takes the responsibility to efficiently provide the basic health needs. No doubt this model cannot be ruled out but the efficiency issues, the distortion issue, the equity issues and the irreversibility issues in this model perhaps needs to be further investigated.
The Public Works Department as usual has a high allocation and rightly so because roads and bridges are pre requisites for all developmental efforts.The state inherited from Assam a road density of 12.42 km per 100 sq km.By the end of the 11th Five Year plan, the road density has come up to 41.69 km with perhaps more progress during these last few years. This is a significant achievement though we are still far off the national average of 75 km. Almost forty five percent of our villages are yet to be connected. Therefore we still have a long way to go. However , while proposing to build new roads , there are miles and miles of existing public roads which have been damaged to a considerable extent and this has causes endless discomfort to commuters. These roads have been used beyond their capacity in the name of earning revenue for the state while conveniently raising the income level of the few. I have travelled on many such roads in the state which were smooth three decades ago only to have a back breaking journey on these very same roads in recent years .It seems that the revenue collected in haste at the cost of these roads has never been ploughed back adequately for maintenance of these roads. This regressive effect on these roads coupled with the everlasting catch-phrase of fund constraints by the government would make it difficult for us to visualise as to whether the state would be able to road connectivity for citizens beyond the highways though there is not always a smooth ride in some of these too .
Agriculture and Allied sectors and the Rural Development sector usually has substantial outlays which convert to substantial cumulative achievements reports on efforts made right from the erstwhile Assam Government and continuing throughout the forty years plus of our statehood. In spite of this, we are yet to reach that stage where the State is relatively self reliant in agricultural and farm products and there is a vagueness as to when it will happen. There are flashes of success stories but these are not widely replicated to translate into tangible outcomes in the overall rural development scenario .In the meantime, the potential areas once projected for these sectors has decreased in the last three decades as vast stretches of suitable land have been degraded by mining and quarrying activities , by deforestation, and by intensive faulty agriculture practices. The recent newspaper report that Sericulture is facing a threat in Meghalaya because of air pollution is a matter of concern. Moreover many water bodies are contaminated while the primary principles of conservation of land and water resources are being side-stepped lately . Presently there is a steady flow of agricultural workers towards other economic activities notably mining and towards the MGNREGA and construction projects of the government and other bodies .There is shortage of farm hands in a farming family because of the pursuit of education and it is doubtful if the void will ever be filled up . All these factors would adversely affect agriculture and allied sectors unless new strategies comes up. In the meantime ,the physical targets of schemes are increasing year after year while manpower remains almost stagnant, resulting in less effective monitoring in the field . There is hardly any time to build the capacities of the stake holders either. Centrally sponsored programmes which hardly fit into the local pattern continue to flow in spite of residues of backlogs. Newly introduced programmes have huge targets in the first year itself without necessary infrastructure fully in place. The possibility of overlapping of similar schemes in the field under implementation by the different line departments also cannot be ruled out .It is also doubtful if much headway can be made in militancy affected areas . Consequently, there may be a lopsided presentation of achievements.
At this stage it would be appropriate perhaps to determine the impacts of the efforts of these sectors down the years and identify shortcomings for a proper and realistic approach in the coming years.
The outlay has been increased in all the other sectors too though these sectors may also have their own intricacies and drawbacks which would impede the process of smooth implementation and positive achievements. Overall, it would be presumptuous to conclude that the bigger the size of the budget , the more favourable would be the development outcomes. Rather it may be otherwise if delivery is inadequate and efforts made are not fully productive or cease to be productive . On the other hand , a manageable budget, a modest approach in most cases and a steady build up can lead towards a progressive and evenly balanced sustained growth. Perhaps we need to restructure our thoughts on these lines while we structure our State Plan budgets.