what are the measures needed to undertake for the removal of regional imbalance?
Answers
What are the measures to control regional disparity?
The regional disparity which exist in India in many states has been addressed by Government of India by its three pronged approach. The three strategies employed by GOI are
Resource Transfer and Backwardness
Special area Development Program
Incentives for promoting Investments in backward Regions.
Resource Transfer and Backwardness
Based on the backwardness the Finance Commission has been transferring resources from the centre to states. Transfer of allocation to states in include Central assistance for State Plans, Non Plan transfer as per Finance Commission recommendations, ad-hoc transfers, allocation of centrally sponsored schemes, allocation of both short term and long term credit from financial institutions etc.
However the detailed analysis of the transfer of central assistance to these backward states of Bihar, Orissa, Assam and UP had per capita plan boutlay which remained lower than the percapita plan outlay of all the states put together. This disparity are also vitnessed in the transfer of Central assistance as well.
Also it was seen that the assistance so given are more often than not utilized for the purposes for which it was meant. Backwardness of the areas remain unattended.
Special Area Development Program
In order to develop hilly areas, tribal areas and drought prone areas specific programs with full central assistance have been designed. Different special programs for vtake tied groups have been designed at block level for integrated development of rural areas and generating considerable employment opportunities. All these programmes include SFDA, MFAL, DPAP, CSRE etc.
For development of Scheduled Tribes, ‘ Tribal Sub Plan ‘ (TSP) have been developed. 194 Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITSP) and 250 Modified Area Development Project (MADP) are implemented under TSP. All these are area based approach to problems.
Incentives for Promoting Investments in Backward Regions
In border to overcome the backwardness of regions various fiscal and other incentives have been provided by the Centre, State, other financial institutions and Public Sectors, to promote investments in industrial sectors and generate jobs for the tribals, SCs , marginalized sections etc. These are the incentives provided.
Central government incentives
Income tax concessions
Tax holidays
Central Investments Subsidy Scheme
Transport Subsidy Scheme
Promoting new financial institutions in backward Regions
State government incentives
Consessional Finance from major Financial institutions