India cannot be strong if states remain weak: KCR

Hyderabad, Dec 7 (INN): 'The development of India lies in the development of States. The country cannot be strong if States remain weak,' said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday.

He was addressing the Chief Ministers' meeting at New Delhi, convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to review and restructure the Planning Commission.

'The proposal to form 'Team India' with the Council of Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister as the chairperson to weave the economic agenda of the country together is welcome. I wholeheartedly compliment the Prime Minister for taking such a path breaking initiative, he said.

Speaking about cooperative federalism, the Chief Minister said that, so far, there has been no effective platform to enable the States to express their views at regular intervals and to participate in the formulation of national policies. 'The platform that is now proposed will have to be effective to move towards the goal of cooperative federalism.

For effective interaction and to promote a sense of involvement, the Council of Chief Ministers under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister may participate as members of 'Team India' to deliberate and decide on all the general and important policy issues concerning the entire country,' he said.

However, for issues specific to a region or a few States, such as the 'Ganga Action Plan' or 'Left Wing Extremism', Chief Ministers of States concerned may be grouped into Sub-Groups to deliberate on issues specific to them, said KCR.

The Chief Minister also proposed a Permanent Secretariat, with representation from each State, to assist 'Team India' in its deliberations. The Secretariat may seek policy briefs and expert advice from the proposed 'Think Tank' or even co-opt other experts. All the papers relating to policy issues may be circulated by the Secretariat well in advance to facilitate an informed discussion.

KCR said that that the 'Team India,' comprising the Council of Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister, should envisage a Vision and a Perspective Plan for the States and the country as a whole at least for a decade. The present plan cycle of five-years does not look beyond the short and medium term and the Plan gets prepared only after the completion of one or two years in the five year cycle, he said.

'The needs of States differ widely depending on the levels of development in different sectors. In addition, there are state-specific problems which need to be addressed at the State level. In view of this, States may be given the freedom to prepare their action plan within the broad parameters laid down in the Perspective Plan.

These dynamic action plans may be for a period of three to five years and integrated fully with the annual budgets. The Perspective Plan should be indicative and also facilitate the participation of the private sector in nation building. With the private sector providing close to three- fourths of investment, it needs to be provided with an enabling environment to thrive and to play a complementary role to the public sector,' KCR said.

The Chief Minister said that the indicative planning with a longer perspective would provide an opportunity to States to implement decentralized planning as provided for in Article 243 ZD of the Constitution.

'In fact, the new State of Telangana has already taken the initiative of taking planning to the doorstep of people by launching 'Mana Vooru - Mana Pranalika' or 'Our Village-Our Plan' and moving up to 'Our Block-Our Plan', 'Our District 'Our Plan' and ultimately to 'Our State-Our Plan'. This will result in a paradigm shift in the planning process by converting it from a bureaucratic to a democratic exercise,' he claimed.

The Chief Minister said that the top down approach to planning and increase in the number of centrally sponsored schemes along with the allocative role of the Planning Commission has reduced the space available to States.

Despite the focus on balanced development, inter-state and intra-state differences have been increasing. The planning process should assume an effective redistributive role than in the past. The present system of annual plan discussions with the Centre may be dispensed with, he demanded.

KCR said that the proposed 'Think Tank' should provide technical inputs and decision making should be done by 'Team India'.

The Chief Minister said that, in future, all transfers from the Centre may be based on the recommendations of the Finance Commission. The allocative role of the Planning Commission may be dispensed with.

'Though there has been a reduction in the number of centrally sponsored schemes, it has not resulted in any increase in untied block grants to States. This can be done by drastically reducing the number as well as allocations under the centrally sponsored schemes and transferring the resultant savings to states through untied grants.

The present practice of tied grants has impinged on the freedom of States and ignores diverse situations across States and even within a State. This will provide greater flexibility to States to cater to the felt needs of the people, which differ widely from State to State,' he said.

KCR said that the initiative taken by the Prime Minister to make the States equal partners in progress and empowering them would make India a strong and vibrant nation.