Arunachal Chief Minister Nabam Tuki today said the role of North East Council (NEC) should be revisited considering the changed scenario like Niti Aayog replacing the Planning Commission and recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.
Attending the 64th Plenary of NECat New Delhi today Tuki said the role of NEC as the regional planning body should assume primacy more than anything else, according to an official communique.
The Chief Minister said with the coming in of NITI Aayog there has been a fundamental shift in the way plan resources are allocated to states.
In this changed scenario, the most affected are the Special Category States (SCS), which were fully dependant on Planning Commission in steering development endeavours.
While welcoming the 14th Finance Commission recommendations for increase in vertical share of the states by 10 per cent (from 32 per cent to 42 per cent) Tuki expressed concern over the revamped Central Plan Assistance.
He said as many as 10 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) have been delinked which includes NCA, SCA, SPA and ACA that formed a major chunk of Plan fund for the Special Category States.
Further, the sharing pattern in 13 critical schemes is being proposed to be changed and as such the Special Category States, which enjoyed the 90:10 pattern of funding, will suffer.
The Chief Minister suggested that the Special Status accorded to states like Arunachal Pradesh be continued and the funding pattern of 90:10 for CSS be restored.
On the role of NEC since NITI Aayog has provision for Regional Councils, Tuki questioned the future of NEC and its role.
He pointed that majority of NEC's efforts and times are consumed in issues like project selection, evaluation, sanction, monitoring etc.
The plan fund allocated to the Council can be suitably utilised for capacity building-both Govt officials and private entrepreneurs in the respective sectors and monitoring, he said.
"The NEC must therefore slowly withdraw from project sanction and utililse the funds on capacity building, policy research, entrepreneurship, etc," Tuki said.
