The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today advocated review of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and said that instead of these, funds should be given to the states under Normal Central Assistance (NCA).
Participating in a debate on a non-official resolution in the Punjab Assembly, SAD MLA from Rupnagar Daljit Singh Cheema said that the issue of CSS has been a subject of hot debate in almost every meeting of the National Development Council (NDC).
In these meetings, many Chief Ministers have strongly demanded that the number of CSS should be reduced and they should not be more than 1/6 or 1/7th of the total central assistance.
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A committee constituted by the Planning Commission of India under the chairmanship of BK Chaturvedi has also made such recommendations in the its report submitted in September 2012, Cheema said.
In general practice, the number of CSS are less at the start of the five year plan, but increases as the term nears completion, he said.
Monitoring of these schemes have become difficult and states feel that the schemes compel them to change their own priorities, the SAD member said, adding that the Planning Commission has already opined that 44 per cent of the total central schemes have an annual outlay of less than Rs 100 crore and these be either weeded out, merged or transferred to the states.
Quoting extensively from speeches of various Chief Ministers delivered at NDC meetings, Cheema said that even the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states have rued that "proliferation of CSS prempts a large part of the state's resources for central initiatives and fetters the discretion of the states to choose programmes and schemes appropriate to their needs."
Illustrating his point with figures, the SAD leader added that the share of the CSS in the Gross Budgetary Support has increased over the years whereas central assistance has decreased.
