NITI Aayog’s response to the statement of K C Rao, CM Telangana

By: Deepak Maggu

KCR, CM of Telangana has been accusing the central government of not providing enough funds and discriminating against the state for a long time. In this episode, on August 7, 2022 he did not participate in the meeting of NITI Aayog to register his protest.

KCR, CM of Telangana has been accusing the central government of not providing enough funds and discriminating against the state for a long time. In this episode, on August 7, 2022 he did not participate in the meeting of NITI Aayog to register his protest. NITI Aayog has responded with figures on the allegations made by the CM.

According to NITI Aayog, “It was set up as an Institution with the mandate of cooperative federalism with a premise that strong states make a strong nation.  A number of measures have already been put in place to work closely with states. In the last year alone more than 30 meetings have been held with the Chief Ministers of States by the Vice Chairman/ Members of NITI Aayog.  These meetings have resolved a number of issues pertaining to the states with various Central Ministries and paved way for greater collaboration between NITI Aayog and States.  A delegation led by Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog met the Telangana Chief Minister in Hyderabad on 21^st January 2021 to discuss development issues pertaining to the State. More recently, despite requests made by NITI Aayog for a meeting, the Chief Minister did not respond”.

Source: NITI Aayog

According to the data, the Government of India has allocated Rs 3,982 crore to Telangana under the Jal Jeevan Mission in last four years. But till now, the Telangana state government has withdrawn only 200 crores from it. NITI Aayog quoted the figures of PMKSY-AIBP-CADWM and said that, In addition, Rs 1195 crores were released to Telangana under these schemes during 2014-2015 to 2021-2022. The central government said that the KCR is indulging himself in playing blame games and has been under-utilizing the funds released by the centre.

Source: NITI Aayog

However, if we analyze the data, The Indian government has regularly provided financial assistance to states, including for important flagship projects and programmes. In addition to the significant rise in awards under the Fourteenth Finance Commission from 32 percent to 42 percent, the overall allocation under Centrally Sponsored Schemes grew from Rs. 2,03,740 crores in 2015-16 to Rs. 4,42,781 crores in 2022-23, or by more than twice as much. Additionally, sufficient flexibility has been built in for the use of CSS-allocated funds.