Uttarakhand CM highlights state's financial needs to 16th finance commission

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], March 19 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday presented the state's stand in detail on the financial conditions, challenges and development needs of the state in a meeting with the Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission Dr Arvind Panagariya and other members at the Secretariat, said an official statement.
The Chief Minister has requested appropriate compensation in accordance with the spirit of "Environmental Federalism" in view of the "Eco Service Cost" of Uttarakhand. Also, suggested increasing the weight prescribed for forest cover in "Tax-Transfer" by 20 per cent. Special grants should also be considered for proper management and conservation of forests in the state.
In the meeting held at the Secretariat, the Chief Minister met the Chairman of the Finance Commission Dr Arvind Panagariya, Commission members Anne George Mathew, Dr Manoj Panda, Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Secretary Ritwik Pandey, Joint Secretary KK present in the special meeting organized with the aim of establishing better financial coordination between the Central Government and the States. Mishra was welcomed on his arrival in Devbhoomi Uttarakhand in this silver jubilee year of the establishment of the state of Uttarakhand.
CM said that in the last 25 years, Uttarakhand has made remarkable progress in the field of financial management like other areas. After the establishment of the state, the state had to depend on external loans to develop its basic infrastructure. While on the one hand the state has achieved remarkable achievements on the basis of various parameters of development, the size of the budget has crossed one lakh crore rupees.

In the SDG Index Report of the year 2023-24 released by NITI Aayog, Uttarakhand has emerged as the leading state of the country among the states achieving the goals of sustainable development. The unemployment rate of the state has come down by a record 4.4 percent. In terms of per capita income, an increase of 11.33 percent has been registered, which is more than the national average.
The Chief Minister said that due to more than 70 per cent of the total geographical area of the state being covered with forests, two major challenges are also being faced. While on one hand more expenditure has to be made for the conservation of forests, on the other hand, due to the prohibition of any other development activity in the forest area, 'eco service cost' also has to be borne.
CM Dhami requested for giving appropriate compensation in accordance with the spirit of 'Environmental Federalism', increasing the weight prescribed for forest cover in 'Tax-Transfer' by 20 percent and giving special grant for proper management and conservation of forests in the state.
After the end of the 'Industrial Concessionary Package' in the year 2010, we are facing difficulty in fulfilling the 'locational disadvantage'. Due to difficult geographical conditions and other practical difficulties, the participation of private sector in important sectors like education and health is very limited in the hilly areas of the state.
Due to this, special budget provisions have to be made for these sectors. Efforts are being made to provide quality education at low cost through smart classes, cluster schools and distance education. Along with this, efforts are also being made to strengthen health services in the state by ensuring the availability of tele medicine, special ambulance service and specialist doctors.
The Chief Minister said that Uttarakhand is a state extremely sensitive to natural disasters. The state needs continuous financial support to effectively deal with these disasters and for relief and rehabilitation work. Giving information about the 'Bhagirath App' established to revive water sources in the state and to ensure the participation of common citizens, the Chief Minister requested to consider special grants for these special efforts of water conservation.
The Chief Minister said that due to the rules implemented as a result of declaring Ganga as a national river, the possibilities of hydropower generation in Uttarakhand have become limited. The hydropower sector is not able to make the expected contribution to the economy due to various reasons, due to which there is a huge loss in the field of revenue as well as employment.
The Chief Minister requested to determine the amount of compensation for the affected projects and the related mechanism and said that due to the "floating population" coming to the pilgrimage sites, additional infrastructure has to be developed for transport, drinking water, health, garbage management and other services. Special assistance should be provided keeping in mind the high cost of building infrastructure in the state due to complex geographical conditions.
The Chief Minister said that along with tax effort, "fiscal discipline" should also be included as a component in the "devolution" formula in the norms of sharing between the states under "tax-devolution". It would be logical to implement "Revenue Need Grant" in place of "Revenue Deficit Grant". The Chief Minister said that due to the three dimensionality of the geographical structure of the state, both capital expenditure and maintenance cost are high. The credit-deposit ratio in the state is also low. (ANI)