Ideally, since states also get other funds from the Union government by way of assistance for their state plans, this is the part that should be used more actively to transfer funds for developmental needs of states. This will allow the Finance Commission to provide more for states that are doing well and contributing more to the central kitty. But, as various NDA-ruled states had pointed out last year at the National Development Council meeting that approved the XIth Five Year Plan, the central government is giving more funds to them through centrally sponsored schemes whose goals and structure are dictated by the Centre. What complicates the matter is that the 13th Finance Commission has indeed been entrusted with the responsibility of examining whether the money that the Union government gives to states by way of gross budgetary support should be taken into account before deciding what share is to be allocated for the states! In other words, Mr Patil's proposal for an exclusive club of progressive states has ensured that the 13th Finance Commission will have its hands more than full in resolving the issues raised by him.
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