Jaitley trashes charge of arbitrary funding to states

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday dismissed the repeated accusations by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat of "arbitrary allocation" of central funds to states.

Jaitley, who was here to release the "vision document" of his Bharatiya Janata Party for the assembly polls in the hill state, said fund allocation to states was done under the existing constitutional provisions and hence charges of prejudice against any state were misplaced.

To Rawat who has often complained publicly of "step motherly treatment by the centre" in allocating funds to the state, Jaitley, without naming the Congress Chief Minister, said that people who were making such charges were well advised to "closely study the constitutional provisions on such matters."

--IANS

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