Money allurement for Bihar, West Bengal in offing

The DMK’s pullout from the UPA and the Samajwadi Party’s noises may prove to be an advantage for Bihar and West Bengal — the government is planning to dish out more to the two non-UPA ruled states. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Mar 26, 2013, 07:20:44 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The DMK’s pullout from the UPA and the Samajwadi Party’s noises may prove to be an advantage for Bihar and West Bengal — the government is planning to dish out more to the two non-UPA ruled states.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U), which has always been a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which left the UPA in a huff in September 2012 following the row over FDI in multi-brand retail, have recently been soft towards the UPA.

The Planning Commission on Monday formalised a special plan — not the special status, as demanded by both — under the Backward Regions Grants Fund for Bihar and Bengal.

The programme covers 272 backward districts of the country -- all districts in Bihar and 12 out of 20 in West Bengal.

A senior planning commission official said the two states could expect a 25-30% hike in central funds. Bihar’s special plan for 2013-14 is likely to be around Rs. 2,000 crore against Rs. 1,500 crore this year.

He said West Bengal would also see a hefty hike in funding. The state witnessed a 22% increase in BRGF in the last budget when the TMC was supporting the UPA.

A senior central government functionary clarified that Kumar’s demand for the special status was not likely to be met. He, however, said the Centre's intention to redefine the method of identifying a backward region – as declared in the last budget – will qualify Bihar and some other states for special allocations.

"The current definition of backwardness is based on being a hilly region or a border area is illogical and, therefore, we are reworking it. We will come out with a new policy in a few months," he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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