Harish faults NITI Aayog

Hyderabad: Finance Minister T Harish Rao has criticised the public policy thinktank NITI Aayog for issuing a political statement instead of answering the questions raised by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao the other day. The minister alleged that the devolution of Central funds had decreased from 42 per cent to 29 per cent during the eight-year BJP rule.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, the Finance Minister said the clarification of NITI Aayog following CM's decision to boycott the meeting was political in nature. It is shameful for NITI Aayog to criticise the CM with political motives," Harish Rao said.

The Finance Minister said that NITI Aayog had recommended giving Rs 24,000 crore to Telangana for Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya, but the Centre had failed to honour the recommendation of the public policy thinktank.

"Is this not degrading the constitutional body," questioned the minister.

He alleged that the organisation had spoken half-truths in its statement. On the allegation of utilisation of just Rs 200 crore out of allocated Rs 3,922 crore under Jal Jeevan Mission, he said that a series of letters were written by the state to the Centre but no funds were given, he said.

The Finance Minister alleged that there was no truth in the claims that the Central devolution had increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. He said that the 15th Finance Commission, and CAG had observed that the states were not given funds. The states were deprived of their due share because of the cess brought by the Centre. "About 19.6 per cent of funds were taken away by the Centre in the form of cess, which comes to Rs 15.47 lakh crore between 2014 and 2022 and this year Rs 5.35 lakh crore.

The states should have got Rs 8.60 lakh crore as per the devolution of the Central funds. Telangana had lost Rs 42,000 crore because of the cess. The state was getting only 29.6 per cent of Central devolution, Harish Rao said.

The Centre has also decreased its share from the Centrally-Sponsored Schemes (CSS) from 100 per cent to 60 per cent resulting in an annual burden of Rs 2,785 crore on the state, he added.