NITI Aayog: CMs panel for reducing centrally sponsored schemes

New Delhi: The panel of chief ministers working on rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes is unanimous on reducing them and will finalise recommendations on it in the next meeting to be held on 28 May at Bhopal. After firming up its recommendations on the CSS, the sub-group of Chief Ministers under NITI Aayog will finalise its report and submit it to the Prime Minister. [caption id=“attachment_2186399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan is the convenor of the CMs committee. AFP[/caption] “We will hold another meeting of the sub-group on May 28 at Bhopal to finalise the draft recommendations on CSS. The panel is unanimous that the number of CSS should be reduced,” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. Chouhan is convener of the sub-group of chief ministers on CSS. At present there are 72 CSS including the six new schemes introduced by the NDA government. During the UPA regime the number of CSS were reduced from 147 to 66. The rationalisation of CSS is important as Centre has decided to raise state’s share in taxes to 42 per cent from 32 per cent. “We will decide on what should be the number of CSS later. But we should continue only very important and relevant CSS,” Chouhan said after the meeting of panel here. Earlier in its first meeting in March, the panel had set up a working group under NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Sindhushree Khullar with all nodal officers of the states on board to prepare a discussion paper. The panel today discussed the issues raised in the discussion paper. Besides reducing the number of CSS, the other issue which came up, is the pattern of fund sharing of these schemes between Centre and states–90:10, 50:50, 25:75 etc. Chouhan said, “It was decided that the funding pattern should not be more than two or three. It was also discussed that the funds under CSS should be released in April. The funds should be released twice in a year without any delay.” The panel also supported the idea that there should be incentives for performing states and their innovative ideas should be promoted. Chouhan said: “I will write letters to all chief ministers to incorporate views of those who are not members of this sub-group. We have also decided to send team of NITI Aayog officials headed by NITI Aayog CEO to discuss issues related with CSS with different regions like North, South, East and West.” The sub-group on CSS has Chief Ministers of eleven states including Rajasthan, Nagaland, Manipur, Jharkhand, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh. During the meeting of the sub-group, Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh said that the termination of the Special Category States would be a big blow to the interest of those states which had been suffering from backwardness and utter underdevelopment since long. Focusing on the issue, he said that after analysing the 14th Finance Commission recommendations and the Union Budget 2015-2016, the status of North Eastern states and other similar states as Special Category States was going to be discontinued. “This dangerous and disastrous move cannot be accepted at this stage. The financial facilities used to be availed by all these states must be continued as per the past practice,” Singh said. He pointed out that even with only 10 per cent share, North Eastern states faced difficulty in accessing Central assistance under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes. PTI