Author: Annapurna Jha/Kumar Uttam
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 29, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/292991/NDA-States-top-20-pt-plan;-livid-Cong-says-scrap-it.html
Gujarat shows the way
Embarrassed over a UPA Government report ranking
NDA-ruled States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Punjab as the four best
performers in implementing the 20-point Programme (TPP), the Congress on Thursday
rejected the findings which the Government it leads has come out with. Not
surprisingly, the BJP patted its back.
"All this is baseless. We consider it
wrong and reject the report," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said while
reacting to the higher ranking of NDA-ruled States in implementing TPP meant
for poverty eradication and empowering people. The Ministry of Statistics
and Programme Implementation has come out with the report.
Furthermore, according to the report, non-UPA
ruled States like Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have also shown impressive performance
in implementing TPP both being ranked at fifth place, while the Left Democratic
Front-ruled Kerala and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh have both achieved the seventh
place.
Delighted by the findings, the BJP said the
main focus of the programme is poverty eradication and the report proves NDA
Governments were serious in doing that.
"Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh is at
10th position. This is another indicator of how serious is that party. They
were only interested in eradicating their own poverty during the Commonwealth
Games," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Significantly, all NDA-ruled States have improved
their performance as far as implementing TPP is concerned. Gujarat had ranked
fourth last year but topped the list as far as performance between April to
July 2010 is concerned. Karnataka was at seventh place in 2009-10 but is now
ranked second. Jharkhand jumped 10 places to be placed at third. Punjab jumped
to the fourth place, up from 21st last year.
Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have improved their
positions from sixth and seventh place respectively last year to fifth this
year. Kerala also had 17th rank in 2009-10 while Madhya Pradesh had eleventh.
Among Congress-ruled States, Andhra reached
tenth place climbing down from ninth last year while Rajasthan has come down
from second place to 12th this year. Maharashtra has also gone down from 14th
rank last year to 23rd this year.
About Congress rejecting the report, Sitharaman
reminded that it was not a document manufactured by the opposition but of
the UPA Government led by Congress.
North-Eastern States have been the worst performers
as far as States and Union Territories are concerned. Manipur has been ranked
last at 30th place while Nagaland, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have been
placed at 29th, 28th and 27th place.
Interestingly, NDA-ruled States of Bihar and
Chhattisgarh have been ranked low at 27th and 21st place. But Bihar has remained
static at this level while Chhattisgarh has improved from 25th rank last year.
However, Uttarakhand has deteriorated from fifth position last year to 18th
this year.
DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu has also gone down from
second place last year to 12th this year while strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir
has remained static at 23rd place.
TPP has programmes meant to provide food security,
housing, health services, clean drinking water, education, women and child
welfare, slum improvement, environment protection, social security, rural
roads, rural electrification, development of backward areas, e-governance,
SC/ST welfare, support to farmers and labour welfare.
