New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are among notable Bimaru States in North that spend the highest amount of their state GDP in education and health against average national GDP level of 0.57 in a bid to successfully uplift their education and healthcare infrastructure, say an assessment of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

This is due to the fact that average literacy rate in UP and Bihar continues to stagnate at 56.27% and 47.00% respectively, added  Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM.

According to latest available figures provided to ASSOCHAM by state governments on share of GDP spend in education and health by States in North India, it is noted that Uttar Pradesh has been spending close to 3.67% of state GDP to modernize it's education system.

State of Bihar that's overall state GDP recorded a growth of close to 11% in last fiscal also spent Rs.13147 crore on healthcare facilities and won laurels for good governance across all states.

The state of Uttar Pradesh which is yet to be rated for good governance, however, spent Rs.20359 crore to modernize it's education system as per latest available figure for fiscal 2009-10.  The national average of GDP spend  on education is estimated at 0.7% while in case of Bihar, it is 5.70% and that of UP, 3.76% of their Gross State Domestic Produce.

The ASSOCHAM Secretary General said that Rajasthan is another state which GDP spend on education aggregates at 3.57% of it's state GDP, while in case of Madhya Pradesh, it is calculated at 3.38%.  Punjab, Haryana which are considered progressive states in Northern belt respectively spend 2.23% and 2.05% in education of their GDP.

The literacy rate in Rajasthan is close to 60% while in Madhya Pradesh it is 63%.  Literacy rate in Punjab and Haryana are respectively estimated at 69 and 67%.  However, Delhi is one state which GDP spend on an aggregate is considered at 1.17% on education against it's literacy rate of 81.67% which is the highest in Northern region.

As regards to health expenditure, Delhi on an average spends close to Rs 1800 crore for upgrading healthcare facilities against Rs.3981 crore of Haryana, Rs.7711 crore of Madhya Pradesh, Rs.4593 crore of Punjab and Rs.4855 crore of Rajasthan.

The report further points out that state governments are in habit of providing higher budget outlays on core sectors including education and health but at the end of the year, practically it is found that not many states are able to achieve planned spending.

In case of education, healthcare and infrastructure, things are better in states with relatively less geographically areas like Delhi, Punjab, Haryana.  Another notable point is in states with higher literacy rate, the expenditure on education vis-à-vis percentage of gross state domestic product is relatively low.

For improving the situation further, ASSOCHAM suggests strong political will coupled with sincere efforts and positive approach towards development in all sectors by both central and states.  Apart from the budgetary allocations, there is need for reviewing the progress on a regular basis.  There is also a need to identify new projects each year for new beginning and maintenance with better facilities of existing installations.

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