Jayalalithaa slams Centre, again

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After Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, it was Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa’s turn to hit out at the planning commission for its ever-increasing tendency to dictate terms to states on spending “their own money”.

After a disappointing meeting with its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi Monday, Ms Jayalalithaa questioned the utility of the annual exercise of finalising budgets for states in consultation with the planning commission.

“We asked for central assistance, additional assistance under various heads, but that was not forthcoming. So, what this entire exercise amounts to is that we have come all the way to New Delhi to have discussions and meetings with the planning commission, so that they can tell us how to spend our own money,” CM told reporters.

Only last Friday, Mr Modi had reportedly questioned minister of state for planning Ashwini Kumar’s assertion that the Centre had given Gujarat Rs 23,000 crore as part of central and centrally sponsored schemes.

Mr Modi had reportedly shot back asking the plan panel “how much money the Centre has received as taxes from Gujarat”.

Though he had kept mum on Mr Modi’s retort, Mr Ahluwalia reacted to Ms Jayalalithaa’s criticism, saying these discussions were important because the Centre also contributed to state outlays.
Ms Jayalalithaa countered, saying the Centre’s contribution this time was a mere Rs 3,000 crore of the total outlay of Rs 28,000 for Tamil Nadu for 2012-13.

Incidentally, the outlay this time is 19 per cent more than last fiscal.

Mr Ahluwalia said most resources that came up in these annual discussions came from states and the Centre gave some funds before the total plan size was approved.

“The purpose of the annual discussion is not simply to give money, but to discuss issues,” he said.
But the question Ms Jayalalithaa rightly raised was why carry on with the annual charade of plan talks if the planning commission was going to ignore the pressing demands of states.