Centre Should Bear Expenses of All Centrally Sponsored Schemes for One Year: Sushil Modi to Sitharaman

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday urged the Centre to bear the entire expenses of all Centrally sponsored schemes for one year.

In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Bihar DyCM said that all 66 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) might be closed/discontinued for this year (2020-21) for want of money if the Centre does not bear the state’s share for schemes.

He said the Centre should also bear the state’s shares as most states are not in a position to give their share of Centrally Sponsored Schemes because of the crisis due to lockdown in the country.

Sushil Modi, who also holds the Finance portfolio, thanked the Central government for releasing Rs 9,268 crore as Bihar’s share in central taxes besides giving Rs 1,210.28 crore for MNREGA, Rs 708 crore for disaster and Rs 502 crore for urban local bodies.

Of the Rs 25,650.43 crore which was spent on 66 CSS during the financial year 2019-20, the state received Rs

15,513.03 crore as central share whereas it had to spend Rs 10,137.40 crore as its own share, the DyCM said.

Similarly, the state got Rs 1,093.13 crore for Mid Day Meal scheme and Rs 3,268.93 crore under Samagra Shiksha

Abhiyan (SSA) from the Centre while it (state) had to spend Rs 728.75 crore on MDM and Rs 2,177.95 crore on SSA respectively as its share.

But given the situation arising out of COVID-19 and subsequent enforcement of lockdown, it is quite difficult for

majority of the state governments to spend such a huge sum of funds this year (2020-21), he said.