Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said NITI Aayog had failed to perform its expected role of a facilitator in the last four years and not been able to substitute the erstwhile Planning Commission.
He was addressing a governing council meeting of NITI Aayog here.
Mr. Vijayan said doing away with the Five Year Plans meant the State governments had lost the grants that it used to get as Plan assistance and the States were now bearing a higher share of 40% instead of the earlier average of 25% for many Centrally sponsored schemes.
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“I hope that my colleague Chief Ministers would agree with me that NITI Aayog in the present form has not played the much expected role of a facilitator in the last four years. There is a growing realisation that it is perhaps not a substitute for the erstwhile Planning Commission,” he said.
He also criticised NITI Aayog’s flagship “aspirational district programme”.
“The programme has the idea of monitoring progress of districts, which are lagging behind in social and economic indicators when compared to the best achievers in the respective States and the country.”
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“Kerala is of the opinion that one size fits all approach of the Centrally sponsored schemes goes against the basic principles of cooperative federalism. In our view, the aspirational district programme has carried this one step further,” Mr. Vijayan added.
Sabarimala issue
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Mr. Vijayan said if the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala dictated that women should be denied entry to the temple then his government would have implemented that verdict too.
“If the Supreme Court reverses its stance on Sabarimala we will implement that too,” Mr. Vijayan told the media. On the question about the CPI(M) central committee report that the Kerala unit of the party did not get the people’s mood, he said the reporters had read the party report wrong.