FM wants states to spend more for Central flagship schemes

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked the Planning Commission to encourage states to raise matching resources and progressively increase their stake in funding of the flagship development schemes of the UPA government.

Chidambaram recently wrote to the Planning Commission highlighting this point. "Most programmes, in my opinion, should be funded by the state governments from their own resources. It is only the flagship programmes that should require the Centre's support."

The finance minister's missive pointed out that states no longer faced a perennial financial crunch.

The finance commission awards, debt restructuring, value added tax and the measures taken by states to promote fiscal reforms, had led to robust state finances. It would not be unreasonable to call upon them to be equal partners in all areas of central budgetary intervention, it added.

Chidambaram also expressed displeasure on continuing schemes from one Five-Year Plan period to another without a thorough assessment of the usefulness of the scheme.

"There are schemes from earlier plans which continue on a hand-me-down basis. There seems to be a unspoken fear of addressing these legacy issues, but unless we do so, I am afraid, we cannot find the resources to fund contemporary and relevant schemes that constitute the flagship of the UPA government, he said.