PM Promises States More Funds, Greater Utilisation Powers

NEW DELHI: Exhorting Chief Ministers to bury differences to help India achieve high growth and create jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today promised more funds to states with greater powers on their utilisattion, even as he asked them to address issues delaying projects.

Keen to revive investment cycle, Modi at the first Governing Council meeting of the newly-constituted NITI Aayog asked Chief Ministers to personally monitor factors impacting project execution and suggested that an officer be identified in each state to monitor and resolve pending issues.

He offered to transfer some of the 66 centrally sponsored schemes, for which Rs 3,38,562 crore was provided in 2014-15, to states. A sub-group of Chief Ministers would be set up under NITI Aayog to look into rationalisation of these 66 schemes and recommend which ones "to continue, which to transfer to states, and which to cut down".

"We will move away from 'one size fits all' schemes and forge a better match between the schemes and the needs of states," Modi said.

 
Modi also announced setting up of two more such sub-groups -- one for skill development and creation of jobs within states and the other to create an institutional framework to make 'Swacch Bharat (Clean India)' a continuous initiative.

Identifying poverty elimination as the biggest challenge, he said the new body, which replaced the long-standing socialist era plan body Planning Commission, will forge a model of "co-operative and competitive federalism".
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