Aiming to move away from "one size fits all" approach for funding to states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced rationalisation of 66 central schemes, which may include cutting down some of them, even as states like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh demanded extra funds.
Addressing the first meeting of NITI Aayog's Governing Council, comprising of state chief ministers, Modi said the country needs to move away from "one size fits all" schemes, and forge a better match between the schemes and the needs of the states.
He announced setting up a sub-group of state chief ministers to "study the 66 Centrally Sponsored Schemes and recommend which to continue, which to transfer to states, and which to cut down."
The Centre's assistance to states for 66 central schemes was Rs 338,562 crore in 2014-15, more than double of Rs 136,254 crore in 2013-14.
In the 11th Plan Period, the total provision for central scheme stood at over Rs 6.6 lakh crore, while the number of such schemes was reduced from 147 to 66 last year. At one point of time, there were as many as 360 such schemes, but their number has come down over a period of time.
Sources said government has plans to reduce the number of central schemes to 10 so that states could get more flexibility to incur expenditure on development works as per their requirement and not as per schemes designed by Centre.
Some of the flagship central schemes include MNREGA, Bharat Nirman, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana.
At present, states are allocated money under central schemes for various development works like roads, sanitation, education and other social welfare schemes by the Centre. States have to spend the money allocated as per guidelines.
The decision to set up the sub-group under the NITI Aayog was taken here during the meeting of the Government Council, chaired by Modi with all chief ministers on its board.
At today's meet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam pitched for higher flow of funds from the Centre to the states and demanded flexibility in the design of the flagship programmes and limiting the state's share to 25 per cent for such schemes.
He said the vertical devolution of share to the states should be at least 50 per cent of the aggregate resources available with the Centre.
