CMs panel wants no. of central schemes pruned

It is learnt that some chief ministers have favoured disbursal of the allotted money in April and September every year without any hiccups.

A group of chief ministers has decided to prune the number of programmes from the list of centrally sponsored schemes (CSSs) and would submit a report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on weeding out specific schemes in the first week of June.

Chaired by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the group met on Monday and was unanimous that certain schemes under 72 CSSs should be wound. The panel would meet in Bhopal on May 28 to finalise the report to be submitted to Modi in June. “The panel discussed key questions, issues and suggestions. Preliminary consultations with states, Union Territories (UTs) and union ministries have been held. A group of officers from states and UTs under Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar would assist the sub-group and help in finalising its recommendations,” a Aayog official told The Indian Express.

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The rationalisation of CSSs is important as the government has decided to raise state’s share in taxes to 42 per cent from 32 per cent. Besides, they CSSs together entail a financial expenditure of Rs 1.75 lakh crore of the union budget (2015-16). “We will decide on what should be the number of CSSs later. But we should continue only very important and relevant CSSs,” Chouhan said after the meet.

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It is learnt that some chief ministers have favoured disbursal of the allotted money in April and September every year without any hiccups. The meeting is understood to have suggested that performing states should be incentivised and innovative proposals rewarded.

MP CM told in meeting he would write to his counterparts who are not part of this group to incorporate their views on rationalising the CSSs. The sub-group on CSS has CMs of eleven states including Rajasthan, Nagaland, Manipur, Jharkhand, Kerala, J&K and Arunachal Pradesh.