Its each for themselves out there

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is also the convenor of NITI Aayog’s sub-group of chief ministers, said on Thursday that his counterparts want central government sponsored schemes to be rationalised according to the needs of states. 

At the third meeting of the sub-group, he said that chief ministers agreed that important central government sponsored schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and mid-day meals should be put in a single slot for their implementation. 

The sub-group meeting was attended by Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang, Kerala Chief Minister Ommen Chandy,Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, TelanganaChief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Andaman and Nicobar Lieutanant Governor A K Singh. 

Talking to reporters immediately after the meeting, Chouhan said that it has been decided that the funding pattern of some schemes in which the states and Centre share the cost of implementation would need to be changed. 

He said that the meeting also decided that states should be given the liberty to choose schemes which they wish to implement according to their needs and priorities as well as drop those which are irrelevant to them. 

The last meeting of the sub-group is scheduled to take place in Delhi on June 13 after which final recommendations would be forwarded to NITI Aayog Chairman Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20, he said. 

He said that NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer and Working Group Chief Sindhushree Khullar would prepare the final draft of recommendations after the three meetings and send it to chief ministers for their consents by June 7.