Goa being punished by Centre: CM

PANAJI, Dec 14: Goa's Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro who rode to power less than three weeks ago scored another victory last week when h...

PANAJI, Dec 14: Goa8217;s Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro who rode to power less than three weeks ago scored another victory last week when he persuaded the Central Government to grant a special loan of Rs 150 crores to tide over a financial crisis. However a memorandum submitted by him to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapyee in pursuit of his case has strongly criticised the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula under which the Centre allocates finance to the states.

8220;Goa whose human development indicators are the best in the country is actually being punished for its development under the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula,8221; says the Chief Minister. Faleiro noted in his memorandum that Goa is probably the only state spending more than 15 per cent of its budget or 6 per cent of its gross domestic product on education. The CM also pointed out that Goa has managed to record low population growths even as its citizens enjoy the highest per capita income in the country.

The Chief Minister8217;s memorandum noted that theGadgil-Mukherjee formula as adopted by the Tenth Finance Commission provides a weightage of 85 per cent and 70 per cent respectively for population and per capita income. The weightage for performance criteria in various development sectors is a low 7.5 per cent.

8220;Better performance needs to be rewarded by increasing the weightage for performance criteria to 50 per cent. There needs to be a healthy balance between efficiency and equity,8221; the CM said.

Continuing the argument in his note to the Prime Minister, Faleiro has demanded higher royalties for iron ore extracted in Goa. Though Rs 1000 crore worth of iron ore was exported from Goa, the state received a meagre royalty of Rs 10 crore which cent of the export value, the memorandum stated.

The Chief Minister noted that the mining industry has been causing great damage to the environment and shortage of funds came in the way of remedial measures. He quoted a recent study by the Tata Energy Research Institute which estimated that an AreawideEnvironmental Quality Managment AEQM plan for Goa8217;s mining belt would cost Rs 234.75 crores. With the cost of implementing this plan amounting to Rs 26 per tonne, the chief minister has asked permission for Goa government to levy cess on major minerals in the state.

Faleiro8217;s drive, of course, takes off from where predecessor Wilfred D8217;Souza left. D8217;Souza had had a major run-in with the Central Government over the allocation of funds for the state. Dayanand Narvekar, now deputy CM, as planning minister in the D8217;Souza ministry had just about five weeks ago accused the Centre of treating Goa like a colony.

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Though his tone is much less sharp than Narvekar8217;s, Faleiro raised the same points as his deputy in his quest for Rs 150 cr loan that he managed to get.