Notwithstanding several lacunae found by the chief ministers of the Opposition-ruled states in the 12th Plan document and in the approach in which the Centre treats them, many of them welcomed Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi’s report on Centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) in which he talked about reducing the number of such programmes and also giving greater flexibility in the implementation.
Among the chief ministers, Gujarat strongman Narendra Modi was up front in appreciating the Centre’s move to prune CSS, under which schemes are drawn at the Central level for the entire country, and provide greater flexibilities both in terms of fund utilisation and the guidelines to the states. In his speech at the recently-held National Development Council (NDC) meeting, Mr Modi said, “The initiative taken by the Planning Commission to consult states in restructuring of CSS by the B.K. Chaturvedi Committee needs to be commended. It is sincerely hoped that the Central government would appreciate how rigidly structured CSS have led to inefficiency, wastage and sub-optimal outcomes over the past several years.” He said that it also needed to appreciate the benefits of having “transparent guidelines with in-built mechanism for flexibility in the norms as well as flexi funds to address state-specific problems”.
Sources close to the NDC meeting revealed that besides Mr Modi, who in his written speech commended the report, others, including Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, echoed the sentiment.