Naveen pleads for state specific plan process

Says restructuring of Finance Commission is also a necessity

The new body that will replace Planning Commission must make programs keeping in mind varying problems faced by the states, instead of uniform plan for across India, said chief minister, Naveen Patnaik at a meeting in New Delhi today.

"The problems encountered by the states are unique to them and vary from state to state. We need to tailor our programmes to meet the local needs," he said at the chief minister's conference convened by the prime minister to discuss the structure of a new Planning Commision.

In his first Independence Day speech this year prime minister, Narendra Modi had announced disbanding the Planning Commission and replacing it with a new institution to formulate new plans for speedy development.

While many Congress ruled state governments have opposed the announcement, Patnaik supported the move, saying there is even a need to restructure the Finance Commission.

"We fully support the decision to replace the Planning Commission with a suitable arrangement. We need to create a mechanism for sharing the tax revenues to enable the states prepare their plans based on locally felt needs. In this regard, the Finance Commission can either be strengthened or a suitable new arrangement can be thought of," he added.

Odisha has been witnessing negative growth in revenue collections both in tax and non-tax areas for last couple of years amid weakness in national and global economic situation and its host of populist measures that eat up major part of revenue collections.

The state has been demanding additional revenue allocation from Centre by granting it Special Category State Status and by providing funds under backward region development grant.

Patnaik today reiterated that Odisha deserves the special category status being vulnerable to natural disasters every alternate year. He also reminded the prime minister about huge neglect by the Railways ministry in terms of income made from and money provided to the state.

In his speech, Patnaik said, his government does not want any say in the design of the new entity, but desire the new body to adopt equitable revenue sharing model.

"We leave it to the wisdom of the central government and to the prime minister to frame the structure and processes of the new planning institutional set up. Our stand is that it should ensure just, fair and equitable resource allocation and respect the principles of federal polity," he said.