Uttar Pradesh today sought 90 per cent grant for central schemes saying tough conditions imposed by the Centre in many of its schemes made it difficult for most States to benefit from them.

Addressing the first meeting of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav made a case for at least 90 per cent of grants to be provided under centrally sponsored schemes.

Emphasising continuous interaction between the States and the Centre, he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who chaired the meeting, to make the process of allocation of funds to States more transparent.

Yadav also stressed the continuation of Five-Year Plans, but also said he agreed with the need for making long-term plans of 10 to 15 years duration.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said only a few States were benefitting from central schemes as the conditions imposed in them were difficult to comply. He batted for making the conditionalities more flexible to enable more states to take advantage.

Referring to Modi’s new mantra of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’, Yadav said “it is not possible without provision of adequate resources to economically weaker states.”

He urged the Prime Minister to ensure that there was no space for “discretion” while allocating funds to the states, demanding that the allocations should be done in a more “transparent” manner.

Supporting the concept of ‘cooperative federalism’, Yadav said the Niti Aayog should have ‘permanent working groups’ on all major sectors with state representatives on board. “Niti Aayog should act in a cooperative federalism manner as priorities of every state are different,” he said.

Yadav also wondered whether the National Development Council would continue after the formation of Niti Aayog.

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