ITANAGAR, May 31 � Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has demanded that the Centre should continue to treat the State as a special category State considering its backwardness, low resource base, late entry into developmental process, geographical parameters, cost of delivery of services and notably, its strategic importance.
Speaking at the consultation meeting on rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) of the NITI Aayog Sub Group of CM at Bhopal on Thursday, the Chief Minister pointed out that for the special category States, which face resource crunch, the gain in the new regime of fund flow is not so much as in case of the general category States.
This is mainly due to the fact that the allocations like, NCA, SCA, SPA and few CSSs which have been delinked from the Plan allocation used to constitute a major portion (about 40 per cent) of the total Central assistance to the State during 2014-15.
Advocating continuation of NCA, SPA and SCA, Tuki said in order to continue to pursue the policy of bringing the backward States at par with other developed States of the country, the Centre must ensure special dispensation in some form or other for these States to cope up with the national development process.
�I deem it important to reiterate that due to replacement of Panning Commission by NITI Aayog), my State is yet to receive the funds for this year and this has adversely impacted the State finances and we were constrained to avail the ways and means advance and over draft facilities from the RBI,� Tuki added.
He suggested a transitory formula to help the special category States to tide over the backlog with the abolition of SPA, NCA & ACA.
Taking into consideration the needs of the State Government, Tuki suggested that funds under CSS may be released in two equal installments � the first in May and the second in November for timely implementation of schemes. Also that all CSS to be implemented in the State should either be fully funded by the Union Government or funded at 90:10 ratio by the Centre and State.
Another important suggestion put forth by Tuki was that third party monitoring be introduced for all CSSs for proper implementation and the same should be coordinated by NITI Aayog to maintain uniformity.
The consultation of the Sub-Group, third in its series, was chaired by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is the Chairman of the Sub-Group, and attended by member Chief Ministers of various States.
The final meeting of the NITI Aayog Sub-Group of CMs on Rationalisation of CSS is slated to be held on June 13 after which the Sub-Group would submit its recommendations.
