Finance Commission lauds Odisha’s fiscal discipline
BHUBANESWAR: The 15th Finance Commission has praised Odisha for its fiscal discipline while highlighting the severe shortage of healthcare professionals in the state.
The report tabled in Parliament on Monday said 83.5% specialists’ posts in community health centres (CHCs) are lying vacant. Of the sanctioned strength of 1,529 specialists, as many as 1,276 are vacant. Similarly, there are 409 vacancies of doctors in primary health centres (PHCs), against the sanctioned strength of 1,326 posts, a shortfall of 30.8%.
The commission has recommended robust initiatives to improve key health indicators which are inferior than the national average, like maternal mortality of 150 per 1,00,000 live births (2016) as opposed to 113 at all-India level.
In terms of fiscal discipline, the panel said though the debt to gross state domestic production ratio has been maintained at less than 20% between 2011-12 and 2016-17, fiscal pressure is building up on its financial position.
To provide impetus to industrialisation and economic growth, the commission said the state needs to expedite development of ports at other potential locations. Odisha, endowed with 480 km of coastline, has only three ports at Paradip, Dhamra and Gopalpur while the state government has identified as many as 14 potential sites. Though the commission has expressed satisfaction with Odisha’s performance in education parameters such as learning outcomes, pupil-teacher ratio and literacy rate, it has remarked that the annual per capita expenditure on education should be increased.
As Odisha has fourth lowest urbanisation rate among all states, the commission suggested substantial stimulus for accelerating urbanisation in the state, which is a growth driver of economy.
The finance commission has also recommended that decisive steps should be taken to break the low-income trap and improve social outcomes to improve poverty rate, which was 32.6% in 2011-12 compared to the national average of 21.92%. Focussed development suggested for 20% of most underdeveloped blocks.
After the Economic Survey report placed Odisha among bottom states in terms of people’s access to basic necessities, the commission said only 4% of rural households have piped water supply, which is less than one-fourth of the all India coverage of 18.3%.