Maya wanted Rs 80,000 cr; PM panel says UP can’t manage so much

The Prime Minister’s expert committee, set up to evaluate the Mayawati Government’s request for special Rs 80,000-crore...

The Prime Minister’s expert committee, set up to evaluate the Mayawati Government’s request for special Rs 80,000-crore development package for Uttar Pradesh, has said that while the state clearly needs “development of physical and social infrastructure,” the amount it has asked for will “certainly be unmanageable and clearly beyond the capacity of the state to spend”. In fact, the panel has warned, it could lead to “wasteful expenditure, sub-optimal investment results and financial indiscipline”.

Instead, it has called for the state to work towards increasing private investments—its share has been dipping over the past years—and underlined the need for quality governance calling it a “crucial determinant” of the state’s progress.

Officials told The Indian Express that it was now up to the PM to take a decision on the UP package.

After coming to power, state chief minister Mayawati wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the Centre’s financial support for schemes to be undertaken “for faster economic growth of the backward regions of the state”.

The financial support expected from the Centre—for schemes ranging from filling critical gaps in Bundelkhand and Eastern regions to completing some important pending proposals—worked out to Rs 79,880.87 crore.

After the missive from Mayawati, the PM set up a committee under BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission to study the UP Government’s proposal and recommend a suitable roadmap.

The committee has said that already UP has been given a “three and a half times” increase in allocation for the XIth Plan as compared to the Xth Plan allocation of Rs 57,000 crore. The National Development Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to approve the XIth Plan document.

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Pointing out that even this level of investment for the state “will need major increase in the absorptive capacity, improvement in governance structures and major reform of the delivery system” the expert committee’s feedback to the PM is that if an additional amount of Rs 80,000 crore is added to it, “the total investment of Rs 2,60,000 crores will certainly be unmanageable and clearly beyond the capacity of the state to spend”.