States’ claim of lack of funds false: Montek

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has come down heavily on the attitude of the states that complain they have little money. “States,up to now have been saying that their resources are strained. By the way,I do not believe this for one minute. States are giving free TVs,states are spending thousands of crores subsidising power,which is worsening the cheapening of water. So quite frankly,the proposition that states do not have money is manifestly false,” Ahluwalia said here on Friday. He was delivering the keynote address after inaugurating the International Consultation on Human Development In India: Emerging Issues and Policy Perspectives at the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum.

“States are undertaking policies that are making agricultural growth impossible,” he said,adding that policies adopted by the states have meant that they do not have enough to spend on education and health. “You cannot have an agricultural price policy in a world which is going to be open,completely unconnected with what is happening with world prices,” he said.

Ahluwalia insisted that there was no shortage of funds. “One thing that the Planning Commisssion is doing is putting a lot of money into silos marked health and education… We know that the system is inefficient; we know the pipes are leaky,but we are pouring the money in,and a combination of enthusiasm and guilt and just professional desire to do something will force people to do it right,” he said.