Jaya slams Plan panel over TN outlay

[KS]

Jaya slams Plan panel over TN outlay - Indian Express

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa Monday lashed out at the Planning Commission for "not being forthcoming" on Tamil Nadu's demand for "special" and "additional" assistance.

After a meeting with Plan panel Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other top officials to finalise the annual plan for Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa appeared unhappy and took potshots at the commission and the annual exercise itself.

Both sides said the plan size for Tamil Nadu has been agreed at Rs 28,000 crore, 19 per cent more than last year.

Jayalalithaa made her displeasure known before returning to Chennai. She said out of the Rs 28,000 crore, only Rs 3,000 crore is from the Centre. "The rest of it is Tamil Nadu's own money."

"We have asked for 'special assistance', 'additional assistance' under various heads but that was not forthcoming. So what this entire exercise amounts to is that we have come all the way to Delhi to have discussions and meetings with the Planning Commission so that they can tell us how to spend our own money," she told reporters.

While she did not elaborate, the commission said in a statement it was "pointed out that leading states like Tamil Nadu should attract knowledge-based investment and for this purpose focus should be on further improving quality of education". The statement said Ahluwalia hailed the state's "impressive record" of improvement in human development indices and growth in services sector, noted per capita income levels have gone up, and termed as "bold and innovative" decisions like power tariff revision.

Even at the meeting, the CM was critical of allocation to states. She said "untied funds" available to the state for financing their plans through normal Central assistance have not increased proportionately largely because more resources are being transferred to states through Centrally sponsored schemes.

"I have been repeatedly urging that proliferation of Centrally sponsored schemes should be checked for several reasons. Not only are states deprived of untied funds that were available previously, but these Centrally sponsored schemes are designed without reference to specific ground realities and the needs of the population within the states that may face relative deprivation. The resulting rigid "one size fits all" guidelines deny a fair share to a progressive state like Tamil Nadu," she said.

She argued that funds for Central schemes are being released directly to implementing agencies, "completely bypassing state governments, thus compromising fiscal discipline" and impinging on Centre-State relations.

 

[Godless-Kafir]

It is better the center handles planning, state government is to corrupt and will eat all the money.

 

[KS]

It is better the center handles planning, state government is to corrupt and will eat all the money.

As if they are any better..Better one of ours swindle the money than others..atleast money will be in circulation here...

 

[Yusuf]

As if they are any better..Better one of ours swindle the money than others..atleast money will be in circulation here...

Ask A Raja, MK etc.

 

[Yusuf]

What does she want the money for? All the freebies se offered to get votes?

 

[Godless-Kafir]

As if they are any better..Better one of ours swindle the money than others..atleast money will be in circulation here...

Yes Center is better, National Highway Authority does not take bribes. In state roads there is bribe in everything but in previous DMK regime there was no bribe in Corporation works in city, now there is bribe in this to. We need to pay 7% to the minister or mayor these days. Also the cut was 5% in the old regime now there where asking 12% and down to 7% if the person negotiations. I dont know if JJ knows all this is happening down her nose.

 

[Godless-Kafir]

What does she want the money for? All the freebies se offered to get votes?

They say "we spent money to get here", then after that we cant ask anything more.

 

[KS]

Ask A Raja, MK etc.

Dude as if they are the only politicians who are corrupt in India...

Please dont go offtopic..

The thing is out of 28000 crore just 3000 crore comes from center and rest is financed by the state govt...as mentioned the one size fits all approach is NOT good.

What does she want the money for? All the freebies se offered to get votes?

And the Center spends on MNREGA and such obscenities that have literally destroyed agriculture by making labor totally unaffordable....whats the difference...

The point is if a state is going to spend its own money, then there is no point in having a planning commission to tell the state how to spend its own money....and I think its a fair opinion..

 

[SPIEZ]

Yes Center is better, National Highway Authority does not take bribes. In state roads there is bribe in everything but in previous DMK regime there was no bribe in Corporation works in city, now there is bribe in this to. We need to pay 7% to the minister or mayor these days. Also the cut was 5% in the old regime now there where asking 12% and down to 7% if the person negotiations. I dont know if JJ knows all this is happening down her nose.

Yes National highways are way better then state high ways.

If you take Chennai corporation there were many many corruption issues. Several major roads laid in dithers, some were laid few days before election. Butthe new regime has laid some much needed roads in major areas, though the quality is still poor.

 

[SPIEZ]

Ask A Raja, MK etc.

From where do you think we had got all the free TV's

 

[Yusuf]

Dude as if they are the only politicians who are corrupt in India...

Please dont go offtopic..

The thing is out of 28000 crore just 3000 crore comes from center and rest is financed by the state govt...as mentioned the one size fits all approach is NOT good.




And the Center spends on MNREGA and such obscenities that have literally destroyed agriculture by making labor totally unaffordable....whats the difference...

The point is if a state is going to spend its own money, then there is no point in having a planning commission to tell the state how to spend its own money....and I think its a fair opinion..

I didn't go off topic. Just replied to you saying "your people" should swindle.

NREGA gave poor people money so it's obscene? It gave people money to eat, it's obscene. The drawback of NREGA is its implementation. Giving employment and rewarding people for it is not. The thought process to generate employment is good. But like in everything else in India, there are shortcomings.

 

[ejazr]

I think the 28000 crore is part of import duties and custom and income taxes that the state has to pay to the centre as part of its revenue generation. That is something that all states do. That is how a central govt. is suppose to run. The states then levey their own set of taxes, VATs, excise duty, stamp duty e.t.c for their own revenue generation. If every state keeps all the money it collects then who will pay for Central functions like the Defence, External affairs and other national expenditures. Will Tamil Nadu have its own army, navy, customs union and ambassadors in other countries? Might as well get rid of the central govt. if

The fact is that the Centre doesn't even need to return plan money the way it does right now. The Plan and non-Plan money that a state gets is the Centre's money, NOT the States. You can argue that the central tax rates are high or low but the fact is that if you are part of the Indian union, then you are expected to pay your share of taxes. And if that means you are a rich state, obviously you will pay more. So Maharahstra probably pays the biggest chunk of the centre revenues while poorer states like in the NE may actually end up getting bailed out by the centre because of their meagre revenues.

Its only because of the history of the planning comissions that there is system of returning back the duties and taxes collected to the states. Ideally, we shouldn't really have a Planning comission body except maybe as a think tank that gives guidelines on what the policy should be. But who knows when that will happen.

In any case, this part of the partisan politics, all non-Congress/UPA ruled states will be taking potshots at the comission no matter what. Even Gujarat was asking for 50,000crore and the planning commission gave him 51,000 and still he wasn't happy. On the other hand, in the last month 8 other states have got their plans approved from Chattisgarh to MP, and because these are poorer states, they will no doubt get a bigger share as a percentage of the taxes they send to the Centre back as plan money as compared to the richer states like Gujarat, Maha or TN.

 

[KS]

Article Window

New Delhi: Responding to chief minister J Jayalalithaa's remarks expressing disappointment about the Centre's annual economic package for the state, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday said the plan assistance was distributed to different states according to the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula, and emphasized that the weaker states needing more support get a much larger percentage.

"The Planning Commission plan assistance is distributed to different states according to the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula. And the stronger states, the more established ones, get a much smaller percentage, whereas the weaker states that need much more support get a much larger percentage," said Ahluwalia. "So, it is certainly true that for the most advanced states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, the plan finance come from themselves. The purpose of an annual plan discussion is to be able to discuss with the states that what their priorities are, how well they are implementing many central schemes," he added.

The Gadgil formula was formulated with the formulation of the fourth five-year plan for the distribution of plan transfers amongst the states. It was named after the then deputy chairman of the Planning Commission D R Gadgil.

This shows how much is wrong with our Planning commission...States that contribute more to the national economy are not rewarded for their perfomance and funds that ought to have come to them goes to poorly performing states, just because in most cases they WONT perform better.

An analogy would be, a state like West Bengal [which is ruled by a lady who doesnt know her priorities and who with an almost empty coffer celebrates IPL victory as if her own ] which doesnt perform well and even doesnt have a plan in place to perform well is funded by the center at the cost of states which perform well and who need additional funds to implement schemes for their own population.

Unless and until the poorly performing states show a well chalked out plan,policy to turn around the state's economy and revenue collection and actually implement them on ground and the central package is just an initial boost, it doesn't make sense to continue feeding them money which is anyway going to be wasted at the cost of the performing states who can spend the money more wisely.

 

[KS]

I didn't go off topic. Just replied to you saying "your people" should swindle.

Sarcasm failed you.

NREGA gave poor people money so it's obscene? It gave people money to eat, it's obscene. The drawback of NREGA is its implementation. Giving employment and rewarding people for it is not. The thought process to generate employment is good. But like in everything else in India, there are shortcomings.

And the free TV, free grinder, free mixie etc made these things, which are considered essentials in today's context affordable to all people.

Anyway coming to MNREGA, I reiterate it gave money to poor people to go, sleep on the work and for the contractors to write bogus accounts and swindle money.. With easy money coming their way who will come to the fields to work in the sun and earn money..They then resort to asking for rates that are nearly triple the previous labor charges which in turn have made agriculture a loss making profession.

Everything about MNREGA is wrong. Absolutely wrong. And the amount of money lost due to that is many times the money that is required t finance the "freebies" as you call it.

I would rather have money spent on giving things like mixer, TV to poor people than have money given to already wealthy contractors and sleeping laborers through white elephants like MNREGA

 

[parijataka]

/\/\/\

Actually, MNREGA has one of the better implementations in TN. I had read an article in India Today on how MNREGA was helpful in Ooty etc for older tea garden labourers who could no longer work as much. Intention of MNREGA might have been to get re-elected, but properly implemented it can help our really rural poor. Even in PDS - Chhatisgarh and TN have well run PDS systems while UP, AP, etc leak like sieves.

 

[KS]

/\/\/\

Actually, MNREGA has one of the better implementations in TN. I had read an article in India Today on how MNREGA was helpful in Ooty etc for older tea garden labourers who could no longer work as much. Intention of MNREGA might have been to get re-elected, but properly implemented it can help our really rural poor. Even in PDS - Chhatisgarh and TN have well run PDS systems while UP, AP, etc leak like sieves.

Dude if MNREGA in TN is actually considered as one of the better implemented, I can only imagine what is the condition elsewhere...

In agri districts like Erode, Pollachi etc it has totally ----ed up the labor market and now we have to import labor from Assam, Orissa, Bihar to tide over the shortfall....

 

[ejazr]

I though AP had one of the best NREGA iplementations mainly beause the entire administrative portion was digitised by the state under a contracts to TATA. And basically digitising muster rolls and uploading it online for everyone to see. This made it much easier to do social audits and ensure less corruption and apparently one of the reasons why Congress did so well in the 2009 elections in AP

The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : NREGA: Andhra Pradesh shows the way


However, I am still not sold on the NREGA scheme as such. Although it does basically dereive from the Keynesian economics ideas of government kick starting consumption by putting money into the hands of the poorest. The idea being that the poorest are more likely to SPEND the extra money they get rather than the rich who are more likely to save.

NREGA is just to massive to make sure it is going to efficient way of govt. intervention and any massive govt. intervention always makes way for corruption.

 

[Mad Indian]

ON the contrary, I think MNREGA's only achievement is to raise the minimum wage of the labourers involved in the unskilled daily wages. Everything else regarding it is shitty.

That said. I dont trust the Center with my funds. The dilliwallah Politcos can go ---- themselves, I really dont care. India needs to become more federal. And now some "Nationalists" will come barging in about "regionalist" mentalist of tamilians. Yes, we are as nationalist as you are Regionalistic and as regionalistic as you are nationalistic..

 

[parijataka]

Dude if MNREGA in TN is actually considered as one of the better implemented, I can only imagine what is the condition elsewhere...

In agri districts like Erode, Pollachi etc it has totally ----ed up the labor market and now we have to import labor from Assam, Orissa, Bihar to tide over the shortfall....

ok I dont have ground level info, just quoted the article.