New Delhi: More central assistance to deal with farm sector distress and natural calamities, and compensation against loss of revenue on account of GST implementation beyond the five-year period were among the key demands raised by the states during the fifth Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog here on Saturday.
At the meeting, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy made a strong pitch to grant special category status to the debt-ridden state and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be “gracious” in fulfilling the promise made in Parliament and also in the BJP’s 2014 poll manifesto.
On the other hand, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan regretted that the 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.
In his inaugural remarks, Modi stressed that the Niti Aayog has a key role to play in fulfilling the mantra of “Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”. He asked the states to work towards increasing the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and help it achieve the goal of a $5 trillion economy by 2024.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged the Niti Aayog to rework the eligibility criteria for drought compensation in affected areas and reduce the crop damage limit from 33% to 20%.
Adityanath said that the CRPF companies deployed in Naxal-hit Chandauli and Sonbhadra districts of the state should not be withdrawn and the Union Home Ministry should take back its order as the central forces were required to keep a check on Naxal activities. He also suggested that the loan facility under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme should be based on the crop, instead of land area.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has won the fifth consecutive term, batted for simultaneous elections and said frequent polls “vitiate development”. He said the focus of the country as large as India should be on agriculture.
Mentioning how the Cyclone Fani had caused massive devastation to the public infrastructure, property and livelihoods in Odisha, Patnaik said natural calamity should be included as a criterion for according Special Category Status to the state.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal sought enhanced assistance to those affected by natural calamities like floods, which hit the state every year. He also raised key issues pertinent to the state’s development and underlined the future roadmap for state and central government’s partnership.
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, in his intervention, asked the Centre to extend GST compensation beyond five years, saying his state will face “severe financial crunch” after the recompense period ends in 2022. While implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Centre had assured the states to compensate them for loss of their revenue for five years till 2022.
“While the revenue gap is being bridged by the assured compensation till 2022, the state has limited scope to mobilise additional revenue thereafter,” he said.
Source: News18