15th Finance Commission Chairman N.K.Singh and the members have listened with interest certain issues of national concern flagged by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for a paradigm shift in India’s institutional structure and official business processing for speedy development of the economy.
“Can a country afford to waste its enormous resources due to inefficient institutions and processes when the immediate need is to maximise growth,” Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said in an interaction with the members of Finance Commission at Jubilee Hall here on Tuesday. He said that he raised some national concerns with the Commission as it was better placed to refer them for the consideration of the Union government.
The Chief Minister earlier also made a speech on how Telangana State overcame its initial challenges and started the process of reorienting the State to meet aspirations of people that were neglected in the combined State.
Responding to the views of the Chief Minister, Mr. Singh appreciated Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao for going beyond the State issues and raising pertinent national issues. “I along with my colleague members will go through the copy of the speech as well as the broad national concerns raised by you and offer our comments,” he said. Mr. Singh broadly agreed with the Chief Minister on the need for rationalisation of Centrally sponsored schemes and that various types of cess and surcharges should not be continued indefinitely. He also agreed about the realignment of resources with responsibilities and assured that he would make recommendations to the Centre.Union government.
Later, Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi, Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, Secretary to Chief Minister Smitha Sabharwal made presentations on irrigation projects, State programmes and initiatives and Mission Bhagiratha drinking water supply scheme respectively. The Commission was all praise for the Irrigation and Mission Bhagiratha projects and described them as engineering marvels. They said they would explore what best could be done to assist the projects within the broad framework of the Commission.
