New Delhi: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Saturday said that NITI Aayog has not "played the much expected role of a facilitator" in the last four years and perhaps was not a substitute for the erstwhile Planning Commission.
Pinarayi,in his speech at the 5th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog here, said that after doing away with the plans at the national level, states have lost the Gadgil formula, grants which they used to get as plan assistance earlier.
Besides, states now have also to bear a higher share - 40 per cent - instead of the earlier average 25 per cent in many centrally sponsored schemes, resulting in shrinking the State governments' fiscal space, he said.
He said transformation of the Planning Commission to NITI Aayog has adversely affected states like Kerala, which had lost a source of funding for its Five Year Plans.
“I hope that my colleague chief ministers would agree with me that NITI Aayog in the present form has not played the much expected role of a facilitator in the last four years.
There is growing realisation that it is perhaps not a substitute for the erstwhile Planning Commission," he said.
Pinarayi said Kerala was continuing with the Five Year Plans and implementing many development programmes through its Thirteenth Five Year Plan.
He said the centre has recently been spending on subjects in the State List, resulting in centralisation in design of welfare schemes, which by economic reasoning, could be effectively done by governments at the State and local level.
"For a strong nation, a strong Centre, strong states and vibrant local governments are essential pre-requisites."
He said the foremost aim to fulfil people's aspirations was decentralisation of power to them as mandated in constitutional amendments.
Pinarayi said "incursions" into areas of legislative competence of state governments enshrined in the Constitution would weaken the federal system and make cooperative federalism lose its content, as well as its spirit.
Pinarayi opposed the move for Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee(APMC) Act and said the "exploitative conditions"will worsen in all probability.
He said states have their own legislation on reforming agricultural produce marketing as it's an item in the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
He said Kerala has no APMC Act and the focus of the draft model act was on bringing in corporate farming and putting farmers in direct contact with corporate trading entities,with the expectation that their income standards would improve.
Our State has demonstrated that through peoples' participation, intervention of the cooperative movement and the government, procurement of agricultural produce at fair prices is possible.
We have taken effective steps in paddy procurement by ensuring remunerative prices for farmers," Pinarayi said.
On Left Wing Extremism (LWE),he said the security apparatus needs to be vigilant and curb any kind of extremism and terrorism threatening the peace and security of common people.
He said the Kerala government felt states should be able to perform their constitutionally assigned developmental role effectively.
"Kerala has the recent experience of not being able to avail of assistance after the devastating floods of 2018 because of the rigid fiscal constraints being followed without the needed flexibility.
The gravity of this can be realised only when considered against the fact that the State suffered damage amounting to Rs 31,000 crore, which is approximately 4 per cent of its Gross State Domestic Product," he said.
