Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here today that southern states have expressed the need for more flexibility in centrally-sponsored schemes.
Speaking to reporters about issues raised during the Regional Consultation of Planning Commission with Southern states on the Approach Paper to 12th plan, he said: "One of the issues common to all the states is that central schemes should be made more flexible."
"I am in favour of introducing flexibility," he said.
"From the presentation today the broad target that we had got from the full meeting of the Planning Commission is that we will aim at growth rates of 9 and 9.5%, we have not yet fixed where it will be," Montek said after the meeting with the representatives of the Southern states.
During his presentation, he said: "We should not assume that just because we did 8.2% we can now do 9.2% because the world is changing, new constraints are coming up, we do not know what the global situation of oil prices will be. Between 9% and 9.5% we are yet to make up our mind," he said.
The states also talked about what they were going to do especially to make it more inclusive and what they expected from the Planning Commission, he added.
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"One of the important suggestions made by the state governments is making available fuel for power plants. This is a subject currently being examined by the Centre," he said.
Speaking on centrally sponsored schemes, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said: "The assistance to states is provided with too many conditions and in too many compartments... Such assistance with scheme specific earmarking and conditions compromises the planning and formulation function of the states as per the local needs."
"This practice should be stopped in the 12th plan and the entire assistance should flow based on objective distribution formulation with the freedom to the states to decide their priorities," he said.
He said Karnataka was confident of raising resources to meet the projected growth rate of 9 to 9.5% as envisaged in the 12th plan.
However, he called for priority to identifying efficiency promoting policies through political will and consensus in critical areas such as irrigation, electricity and water supply. The state also suggested setting up of borrowing limit for each state based on their debt sustaining capacity.
He also demanded that states like Karnataka be given substantial assistance from Centre for infrastructure development.
Other suggestions by Karnataka included, increasing income of farmers and generating rural employment, developing manpower, expanding-inter state transmission network, universalising secondary eduction, extending mid-day meal programmes for high-school students.
Yeddyurappa also called for the Centre's intervention to ensure coal allocation, gas allocation and environmental clearances to achieve the growth targets.