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Journalism of Courage
Exactly a year ago, a report from the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies that ranked Gujarat as the number one state in terms of economic freedom in the country had created unease at the highest levels in the UPA government. It even led to resignation by the institute’s director Bibek Debroy. But the UPA would find it hard
to drub the numbers put out by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) yesterday.
Tracking the development-oriented Twenty-Point Programme (introduced by the Congress government in 1986) over 2005-06, the ministry assigned the highest marks and top rank to Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Though two Congress-ruled states, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh, have also been assigned the top rank, the number of points they were assessed on and consequently, their total marks, were less than the non-Congress states at the top.
The Twenty-Point Programme covers areas of development action such as rural poverty, rainfed agriculture, land reforms, clean drinking water, health and population, education, focus on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, equality for women, opportunity for youth, housing and slums, rural energy, environment and responsive administration among other things. On a national basis, the performance has been ‘‘very good’’ (over 90 per cent of targets were met) on 13 of the 20 points and ‘‘good’’ (80-90 per cent of targets) on three points.
However, on electrification of villages and building Community health centres, the performance across the country has been poor. For arriving at the rankings, 12 of the 20 points were considered.
Apart from Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, only one other Congress-ruled state, Andhra Pradesh (ranked 9th), makes it to the top 10. The performance in the other Congress states is abysmal, with most states landing at the bottom of the heap.
Consider the ranks — Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh (17), Assam (28), Haryana and Pondicherry (15), Maharashtra (27), Meghalaya (24), Punjab (29) and Manipur (30).
