With the State Government experiencing irregular flow of funds in various Central schemes, it has urged the Union Government to evolve a single-window system for communication of annual allocations.
The State Department of Finance has brought to the notice of the Union Ministry of Finance in this regard as situation has become critical due to uneven and untimely distribution of funds to the State kitty.
Normally, the State should have a greater say in planning, designing and finalising of criteria for allocation for Centrally sponsored schemes and in addition there should be an advance indication about the annual allocation
for each State at time of Budget formulation, pointed out a senior official in the Department of Finance.
This will help the State Government to prepare the Annual Budget on realistic basis. The release of funds must also match the allocation, however, it is not happening, the official stated.
Flow of funds in flagship programmes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and others are irregular and releases are much less than approved annual funding, pointed out the State Government.
Specifically release on SSA is substantially less than the approved annual releases in the beginning of the year and the State is being asked to bear the balance on 100 per cent basis.
Thus sharing pattern of 60:40 between the Centre and State is actually disturbed in practice with the State having to bear much higher than its 40-per cent share.
Against this backdrop, there is a necessity to set up single window system for communication on allocation and sharing pattern to the State.
The State Government has also urged that Ministry of Finance needs to introduce a process of giving indications to the State about annual allocation and sharing pattern of funds in order to impart a greater degree of certainty to the budgeting exercise for ensuing years.
Most importantly, the releases under the Central schemes, especially SSA, is needed to be made commensurate with the annual programme communicated to the State Government so that the State administration will not be forced to contribute more than 40 per cent of its share.
It also said that discontinuance of Central assistance for backward areas dominated by tribal and vulnerable groups is likely to give rise to regional imbalance and called for focused attention of the Government for achieving inclusive growth.
While left Wing Extremism is one of the biggest internal security threats and poses a national challenge,
discontinuance of Central assistance under special plan for KBK, Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), and Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for lWE affected areas has affected developmental programmes for some of the most vulnerable and backward regions of the State.
So, the Union Government is needed to provide a special package to the State for continuance of these programmes from Budget provisions available with the NITI Aayog, urged the State Government.