Karnataka may be a high-flyer on many counts, but the irony is that the State’s poverty ratio is unacceptably high at 21%, said Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K. Singh.
Speaking at a media interaction here on Tuesday, Mr. Singh said: “Karnataka is one of the key engines of India’s economic growth. It has the world’s largest tech talent pool. It has a large startup ecosystem that supports millions of entrepreneurs. The State’s per capita income is significantly higher than that of the nation. Despite all this, its poverty numbers are unacceptably high.”
There was an enigma of two Karnatakas with the existence of both high per capita income and high poverty numbers in the State at the same time, he said, adding that the matter required quick and closer attention of the State government.
The Commission, which was on a State tour in the last two days, met several stakeholders, panchayat institutions, urban local bodies, and representatives of all political parties before holding a meeting with Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, some of his ministerial colleagues, and a bunch of bureaucrats.
Karnataka represents an engine of India’s economic growth, contributing close to 8% of the national GDP and has spectacular records in terms of conformity on many components of financial discipline, the Commission observed.
“They have made credible progress with respect to most of the parameters of the sustainable development goals, except on education outcome and anaemia in children, where there is still scope for improvement,” he said.
Debt to GDP ratio
However, the debt to GDP ratio in the State was on the rise and government has to be mindful of this going forward, he cautioned.
As per Mr. Singh, the State government has responded positively to concerns raised by the Commission that the debt to GDP was rising.
Noting that Karnataka has faced eight years of drought in the last 10 years, Mr. Singh said there was drought proneness, and therefore a need to do a lot to complete many languishing irrigation projects.
CM’s plea
Mr. Kumaraswamy, during the meeting, said “injustice” has been done to Karnataka in allocation under the State and National Disaster Relief Fund and urged it to substantially increase allocations for the State. Responding to this, Mr. Singh assured: “We will certainly look into this with the sympathy which this deserves.” The CM also insisted that the Commission must ensure that once the sharing formula is decided, the Union government should not reduce the funding under the Centrally-sponsored schemes.
