Jaipur, February 24. The Chief Minister, Smt. Vasundhara Raje, while putting strongly the demands of the state before the 14^th Finance Commission, urged that the share of states in Central taxes should be revised from 32 percent to 50 percent. Along with this she demanded allocation of more funds keeping in viewthe peculiar conditions of the state. Besides she suggested that two percent share of central taxes to Panchayats and Municipalities should be increased to five percent. Looking to the vast potential of solar energy in the state, Smt Raje requested the Commission to give recommendation of giving special grant for setting up 5000 mw solar energy plant and for augmentation of water resources, medical & health and drinking water facilities.

Smt. Raje was speaking at the meeting with the14^th Finance Commission here at Secretariat on Monday. The 14^th Finance Commission under the Chiarmanship of Dr. Y.V. Reddy visited the state to held discussions with the State Government on matters concerning the terms of reference of the 14^th Finance Commission.

Underlining the major concerns of the State Government, the Chief Minister emphasized the need to ensure that the Finance Commission recommendations were implemented fully without any modifications and also without any delay in releasing the funds. She said that often the total funds recommended by the commission to be released to the states as grants had never been fully delivered by the Central Government to the states.

The Chief Minister also underlined the need to constitute a standing federal council to oversee that the recommendations of the Finance Commission be implemented equitably and the states were not unfairly deprived of their due share of grants.

She said that the centrally sponsored schemes had fund allocations which run into over two lakh crore and most of the schemes were implemented through mechanism outside the state budget which obscured responsibilities. She also underlined that the artificial distinction between the plan and non-plan expenditure prevented badly required expenditure on non-plan items such as police and transport.

Refering to the state government’s intensive tour of Bharatpur division ‘Sarkar Apke Dwar Campaign’, Smt. Raje said that it was an unfortunate that even after 65 years of Central schemes, we had a completely mangled setup.  Thus it was quite clear that what we had been doing and the model we had been following was just not right. She said that it was urgently required to change the way, we had been doing the things.She said that since the state Governments were more close to the people and understands their requirements better, essential funds should be made available to states for formulating schemes for people‘s development and progress. She hoped that the 14^th Finance Commission would incentivize alternative methods of service delivery or infrastructure creation which was the need of the hour.

The Chief Minister said that often conditionalities were attached to the grants and as a result of that number of grants remained undisbursed. Drawing the attention of the commission towards the state of state’s finances, she said that the state finances were once again under severe stress because of the so calledd

popularist schemes taken by the previous government with an eye of thelections. She said that there was an urgent need to set things right in the coming years and hoped that the recommendations of the  Finance Commission would help the state in doing so.

Smt. Raje demanded that the states be treated as partners by the Central Government. She said that the priorities of the State Government would be to increase investment eradicate unemployment improve the economic structure eduation and skill development and to deliver all public services keeping a high standard. She hoped that the commission would strengthen the State Government’s hand so that usher good governance might be assured and ensure faster development, while maintaining sound fiscal management was ensured.

The Chairman of the Commission Shri Y.V.Reddy appreciated and complemented the Chief Minister for the excellent memorandum presented by the State Government, Shri Reddy said that the memorandum gave a clear insight into the Center and state relations and covered all points of terms of the reference of the Finance Commission. He agreed with the Chief Minister that ways and methodology had to be changed if things had to be set right and alternative models of service delivery had to be considered.

Shri Reddy said that the Commission had noted all the concerns of the State Government. He assured that the commission would give a lot of thought to the issues raised and the valuable suggestions given by the state government. He said that the commission rightly appreciated the role of the state in the fiscal-federal structure of the country .Shri Reddy said that the issues raised in the memorandum was relevant in the present circumstances.

The other members of the commission Ms. Sushma Nath, Prof. Abhijit Sen, Dr. M. Govinda Rao, Dr. Sudipto Mundle and Shri A.N.Jha also complemented Smt. Raje for the excellent memorandum presented by the State Government. All the members said that the memorandum of the State Government was the best memorandum presented to the commission so far and it gave a good perspective of where the state stood.

The Principal Secretary Finance Shri Subhash Garg gave a detailed presentation on the financial situation and the demands of the state, while the Secretary Energy Shri Alok, Principal Secretary PWD Shri J.C. Mohanty, Secretary Disaster Management Shri Kunji Lal Meena, Secretary Panchayati Raj Shri Rajesh Yadav and Principal Secretary Urban Development Shri D.B.Gupta gave a sectoral presentation.

The Medical and Health Minister Shri Rajendra Rathore, The Energy Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, the PHED Minister Prof. Sanwar Lal Jat, the Agriculture Minister, Shri Prabhu Lal Saini, Chief Secrertary Shri Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers were present in the meeting.