The Uttar Pradesh government today demanded assistance grant and state special grant of Rs 72,526 crore from the fourteenth Finance Commission in addition to devolution from the central fund.
The demand was raised during a high-level meeting between the state government led by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and a delegation of the Finance Commission led by its chairman Dr Y V Reddy.
During the meeting the CM said that without development of UP having such a large population, development of the country was not possible.
He emphasised that the first objective of the transfer of central resources should be to bring the backward states at the national level.
Akhilesh demanded Rs 72,526 crore under assistance grant and special assitance grant in addition to the devolution from the central fund.
The government requested Rs 9928 crore for 'sarv siksha abhiyan', Rs 3465 crore for basic facilities in basic education, Rs 1075 crore for secondary education, Rs 1947 crore for higher education, Rs 698 crore for technical education.
It also demanded Rs 3914 crore for health and medical services, Rs 6039 crore for police, Rs 19197 crore for maintenance of roads and bridges and Rs 8182 crore for maintenance of irrigation facilities.
In addition to this, the government demanded Rs 739 crore for educational hub for minorities, ITI and basic facilities, Rs 531 crore to eradicate Japanese Encephalitis in eastern UP and Rs 2,504 crore for construction of roads and drains in backward villages of the state.
Specialised presentations were made by the ministers and various departmental heads in the presence of CM Akhilesh Yadav on the occasion.
The government said that keeping in view increased responsibilities of the states the state share in the revenue receipts from central taxes should be increased from existing 32 per cent to 36 per cent.
It emphasised that in the case of devolution 2011 census should be used in place of 1971 census as it was not practical to use 40 year old figures.
It said that after formation of separate Uttrakhand the figures of 1971 census were no longer relevant.
The commission was requested that divisble pool of the bodies should be increased to five per cent from 2.28 per cent.
The government requested that to provide public amenities as per the norms and upgradation of infrastructure facilities during the period of 2015-2020 a grant of Rs Rs 212,658 crore should be provided to the local bodies.
Similarly it was requested to provide Rs 70,485 crore for panchayati raj institutions.
Various industry organisations and representatives of the political parties expressed their views before the commission.
