 bill no 24 of 2009 the underdeveloped and backward areas and regions (special provisions for accelerated development) bill, 2009 by shri baijayant panda, mp abillto provide for the establishment of an autonomous central authority to ensure rapid,accelerated and overall development of poor, underdeveloped and backwardareas and regions of the country which lag behind in matters of developmentof infrastructure in economic, social, educational, technical and industrialfields and assure their speedy development in a planned manner andfor matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixtieth year of  the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the underdeveloped and backward areas and regions(special provisions for accelerated development) act, 2009short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india (3) it shall come into force at oncedefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government ofthat state and in other cases, the central government;(b) "authority" means the underdeveloped and backward areas and regionsdevelopment authority established under section 4;5(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; and(d) "underdeveloped and backward areas and regions" means the areas andregions which are economically, socially, educationally and industrially lagging behind from rest of the country and so declared by central government under section 310notification ofunderdevelopedand backward areas and regions3 the central government shall, as soon as may be, but not later than one year fromthe commencement of this act, by notification in the official gazette, declare such areas and regions of the country as poor, underdeveloped and backward areas and regions, which in its opinion, require priority attention to bring such areas at par with the developed areas and regions of the country154 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, establishan authority to be known as the underdeveloped and backward areas and regions development authority20establishment of underdeveloped and backward areas and regions development authority(2) the authority shall be a body corporate, by the name aforesaid, having perpetualsuccession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and immovable, and to contract and shall, by the said name sue and be sued(3) the headquarter of the authority shall be at bhubaneswar in the state of orissa and the authority may, with the consent of the appropriate government, establish its offices at other places in the country5 the authority shall consist of the following members:—(a) the prime minister, who shall be the chairman, ex-officio;25composition of the authority(b) the deputy chairman of the union planning commission, who shall be thevice chairperson, ex-officio;30(c) five members of parliament representing underdeveloped and backwardregions, of whom three shall be from the lok sabha and two from the rajya sabha, to be nominated by the presiding officers of the respective houses;(d) ten members to be appointed by the central government representing theplanning commission and ministries/departments of agriculture, rural development, industry, finance, railways, road transport, human resource development, power and water resources of the union government; and35(e) not more than five members to be appointed by the central government byrotation in the alphabetical order to represent the governments of the states having the underdeveloped and backward areas and regions6 (1) the authority shall follow such procedure for holding its meeting as may beprescribedprocedure to be followed by the authority40(2) no act or proceeding taken by the authority under this act shall be questioned onthe ground merely of;—(a) the existence of any vacancy in, or defect in the constitution of the authority, or(b) any omission, defect or irregularity not affecting the merits of the case45secretariat of the authority7 (1) the authority shall have a secretariat consisting of such officers and employeesas may be prescribed(2) the conditions of serivce, emoluments and other perks of the officers and employees shall be such as may be determined by the central government from time to time for the efficient functioning of the secretariat of the authorityfunds to the authority8 the central government shall provide, from time to time, after due appropriation made by parliament by law in this behalf, adequate funds for—5(a) the developmental works to be undertaken by the authority; and (b) administrative expenses of the authority109 (1) it shall be the duty of the authority to undertake such special steps in order toensure rapid and accelerated development of underdeveloped and backward areas and regions of the country, as it may deem necessary and expedient to do so for the overall development of such areas and regions(2) without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the authority shall take following measures:—authority to ensure rapid growth and development ofunderdevelopedand backward areas and regions(i) development of infrastructure such as railways, roads, communicationnetwork;15(ii) promoting industrial development by encouraging investment; (iii) development of irrigation facilities, agriculture and agro-based industries; (iv) augmenting water resources through watershed projects and constructingwells, bore wells, canals, ponds and providing potable water facilities;20(v) installing power projects based on conventional and non-conventionalsources of energy; and25(vi) encouraging other activities such as poultry farming, piggery, livestock,dairy products, cottage and village industries, network of public distribution system, health services, family welfare, education, vocational training, tourism or such other activities as the authority may deem necessary for the overall development of the underdeveloped and backward areas of the country10 the appropriate government shall, for the purposes of this act, provide the requisite necessary assistance to the authority in undertaking its developmental work in the areas and regions within the territorial jurisdiction of such governmentappropriate government to provide requisite assistance to the authority30power to remove difficulties11 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the centralgovernment may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty35annual report of the authority12 (1) the authority shall prepare an annual report, in such form and in such manneras may be prescribed, of its development activities undertaken under this act and submit it to the president of india(2) the president shall cause the report to be laid before each house of parliamentas soon as may be after receipt of the report13 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any otherlaw for the time being in force regulating any of the matters dealt with in this act40act not in derogation of other laws power to make rules14 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rulesfor carrying out the purposes of this act45(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made,before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid,both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonsit is a matter of regret that even after six decades of independence and implementation of as many as ten five-year plans and the eleventh five year plan being in midway of implementation, there are many states, areas and regions in the country which are still underdeveloped, backward and afflicted with extreme poverty, hunger and sufferings in the country the eastern parts of the country particularly orissa, bihar, jharkhand, eastern uttar pradesh, entire north-eastern region, chhattisgarh and tribal areas of madhya pradesh in the central india, vidarbha, marathwada, saurashtra, kutchh, desert and famine prone areas of rajasthan in the western parts, telengana, mehboob nagar, rayalseema in andhra pradesh and other areas in southern part of the country are still most backward, kalahandi-bolangir- koraput (kbk) districts in orissa are synonymous with poverty, backwardness and hunger non-development of many areas and regions has given rise to demand for creation of new states some new states have already been created whereas the demands for other states like vidarbha, gorkhaland, telengana, harit pradesh and bodoland, etc is being raised frequently though reducing regional imbalance is one of the primary goals of our five-year plans but, unfortunately, this imbalance still persists which clearly shows that the union government and the state governments concerned have not paid due attention to the development of such areas and regions in the right earnest so in the larger interest of the country as a whole, it has become necessary to take steps for the overall development of such underdeveloped areas and regions on priority basis by the government for this purpose, an autonomous authority should be established for implementing state, area and region based package programmes for their overall development in a time bound manner in coordination with central and state governmentshence this billnew delhi; baijayant pandajune 5, 2009 financial  memorandumclause 4 of the bill provides for the establishment of underdeveloped and backward areas and regions development authority clause 7 provides for the establishment of a secretariat with such number of officers and employees for the authority as may be prescribed clause 8 provides that central government shall provide adequate funds to the authority the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is not possible at this stage to give an exact estimate of the actual expenditure that may have to be incurred it is, however, estimated that a recurring expenditure to the tune of rupees two thousand crore would be involved per annuma non-recurring expenditure of about rupees one hundred crore is also likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 14 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill, which will relate to matters of detail only the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character———— a billto provide for the establishment of an autonomous central authority to ensure rapid, accelerated and overall development of poor, underdeveloped and backward areas and regions of the country which lag behind in matters of development of infrastructure in economic, social, educational, technical and industrial fields and assure their speedy development in a planned manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri baijayant panda, mp)