Calamities eating into Orissa’s development

New Indian Express,Bhubaneswar,30th May 2009

Natural calamities are not just a drain on the exchequer of the State, they also are eating into the development pie of Orissa. What’s more, the spending on drought and flood mitigation is exceeding expenditure on sectoral development programmes and it could be bad news for a deficit-ridden State.

Between 1965 and 2006, the State had faced at least 17 droughts, 20 floods, eight cyclones and a super cyclone.There are half a dozen depressions taking place off Orissa coast battering its life and property every year.With climate change threatening to increase the incidence of flooding in the State - the latest World Bank report warns this - Orissa may just have to cough up more in the days to come.

Sample this: During the Tenth Plan Period, State’s spending on mitigation of drought and flood was actually more than its expenditure on development sectors.The total estimated expenditure on sectoral programmes during 2002-2007 stood at Rs 53.87 bn as against the outlay of Rs 73.79 bn whereas the spending on the mitigation of natural calamities was a whopping Rs 66.77 bn.It meant, Orissa spent 25 per cent more on fighting calamities than on development programmes.

The report acknowledges it saying natural disasters being high on frequency, Orissa has to pay a heavy price and that in a span of four years between 2002 and 2006, the cost of relief far exceeded the development expenditure.During the Tenth Plan period, spending on agriculture and allied activities was Rs 2.69 bn while the expenditure on rural development was Rs 7.96 bn.The expenditure on special area programmes was Rs 18.80 bn. The biggest spending of Rs 24.42 bn was on irrigation and flood control.In fact, the Plan outlay during the period was Rs 73.79 bn. Against it, the total allocation for calamities mitigation was Rs 105.96 bn and expenditure stood at Rs 66.77 bn.‘‘The fiscal strain is substantial since the Central reimbursements against flood reliefs are usually lower than the requests for assistance,’’ the World Bank report said.