White paper aims to demolish Cong’s ‘No 1 state’ slogan

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 2

A jugglery of statistics aimed at demolishing the “Haryana No. 1” slogan of the previous Congress government, the white paper on the fiscal health of Haryana seems more an attempt by the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP Government at washing its hands of expectations people may have from its maiden budget.

While harping on “empty coffers, rising deficit, fluctuating growth rates and regional disparities in per capita income”, the white paper released by Khattar and Finance Minister Abhimanyu shows a “completely different picture” to prove that the Congress only “misguided” the public with its No 1 claims, conveniently choosing to keep quiet about parameters Hooda quoted.

The white paper pegged the average growth of Haryana over the last decade at 8.5 per cent, placing it at the 10th position while claiming that the share of the agriculture and manufacturing sectors has fallen from 23.3 per cent and 32.7 per cent to 15.3 per cent and 27.7 per cent, respectively.

Contradictory at times, the paper mentions that in less developed economies, a major share of the domestic product comes from the primary sector and, as it develops, the share of the secondary and tertiary sectors increases.

Claiming that the Congress government which considered itself a “pro-farmer government” did nothing to stall the falling contribution of agriculture when the BJP government later acknowledges that the growth in the services sector has been “impressive in the past decade, registering higher growth than the national average”. The share of the services sector rose from 44 per cent to 57 per cent in 10 years.

While conceding that the per capita income (PCI) has remained higher than the all-India PCI, the paper stops at that without giving Haryana’s position vis-a-vis other states. However, to negate this “achievement”, the government is quick to point out that a district-wise scrutiny of PCI shows “a clear regional concentration” in some districts (the state’s six industrial districts) with other districts trailing.

Though Hooda used to harp on Haryana being No. 1 in terms of PCI, wheat productivity, milk production, per capita investment and percentage of resource mobilisation, the white paper chooses to “ignore” that and instead highlights the rise in the unemployment rate and Haryana’s slide from the seventh to ninth position in terms of human development index among other parameters.

While the government attempts to bring out the “real picture”, the Khattar government seems clueless on the way forward. Asked of the government plan to deal with the “bleak scenario”, Khattar merely said that suggestions would be sought from the Opposition and various stakeholders.