CM meets Panagariya, seeks special grant for U’khand’s ecological services
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has requested the 16th Finance Commission that Uttarakhand should get appropriate compensation in accordance with the spirit of environmental federalism in view of the ‘eco service cost’ rendered by it. The CM gave this suggestion while presenting the case of Uttarakhand in a meeting with the chairman of the 16th Finance Commission Arvind Panagariya and other members of the commission at the secretariat on Monday.
The CM suggested increasing the weight prescribed for forest cover in the state’s share in central taxes to 20 per cent and added that special grants should be given to the State for management and conservation of forests.
Dhami said that in the past 25 years, Uttarakhand has made very good progress in the field of financial management. The State has achieved remarkable achievements on various parameters of development and the size of the budget has crossed Rs one lakh crore. In the SDG Index report -2023-24 of NITI Aayog, Uttarakhand has emerged as the leading State of the country for achieving the goals of sustainable development. The unemployment rate of the state has come down by 4.4 percent and an increase of 11.33 percent has occurred in per capita income which is higher than the national average.
The CM told the members that since 70 per cent of the area of the state is covered by forests, the State has to spend money for conservation of forests and due to the prohibition of development activities in the forest area, the ‘eco service cost’ also has to be borne by the State.
He added that after the end of the ‘industrial concession package’ in the year 2010, the State has difficulty in compensating for its locational disadvantage. Dhami said that due to difficult geographical conditions the participation of the private sector in education, health and other important sectors is very limited in the mountainous areas of the state.
The CM said that being a disaster sensitive State, Uttarakhand needs continuous financial support to effectively deal with disasters and for relief and rehabilitation work.
Dhami said that the possibilities of hydroelectricity generation in Uttarakhand have been limited due to Ganga being declared as a national river and this sector is not able to make the expected contribution to the economy due to various reasons.
Dhami said that in view of the floating population coming to the pilgrimage sites, additional infrastructure has to be developed for transportation, drinking water, health, waste management and other services. Special assistance should be provided to the State keeping in mind the high cost of construction of infrastructure in the state due to complex geographical conditions.
Dhami requested that ‘fiscal discipline’ should also be included as a component in the devolution formula in the criteria for sharing of the taxes. He said that it would be rational to implement ‘revenue need grant’ instead of ‘revenue deficit grant’ while deciding the share of the State in central taxes.
Finance secretary Dilip Jawalkar gave a detailed presentation to the commission on various challenges of the State. Chief secretary Anand Bardhan, principal secretary RK Sudhanshu and others were present in the meeting.
