The Hindu Business Line : NDC meet on decentralised planning sought

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug. 20 The Council of State Ministers of Panchayati Raj will request the Prime Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission to convene a meeting of the National Development Council with the focus on Panchayati Raj and decentralised planning.

Talking to the press on the resolutions adopted at the two-day meeting of the Council of Ministers, which concluded here on Saturday, the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, said State-specific data was now available on the progress and the impediments in the decentralised planning process.

The dialogue with the ministries on Centrally sponsored schemes through a committee in the Cabinet Secretariat is nearing completion. It was against this backdrop that the proposal for an NDA meeting was being made, Mr Aiyar said.

Plea for funds

The Council resolved that a recommendation be made to the Planning Commission and the Union Ministry of Finance to allocate one per cent of all the Centrally sponsored schemes to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for capability building and for mobilising technical support to local governments across the States for strengthening decentralised planning and infrastructure development.

The meeting noted that while there were States that had made notable achievement in complying with the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, there remained a good number of States with inadequate progress. States with the better progress card may advise their peers in decentralised planning.

Helping hand

To begin with, the Kerala Institute of Local Administration could extend help to laggards in planning, training and other support.

The meeting resolved that the State Fovernments should look beyond the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) and start implementing the Backward Regions Growth Fund (BRGF) programme.

The State Governments should begin preparation for making submissions to the 13th Finance Commission on the overall requirements of decentralised planning.

Sub-committee

The Council of Ministers decided to constitute a sub-committee under Dr Thomas Isaac, Finance Minister of Kerala. Mr Aiyar volunteered to be a member of the committee.

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