Gogoi concerned over restructuring of Centre's social schemes

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today expressed concerns over the restructuring of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and drastic reduction in the allocation of funds for many important schemes in the state.
"The announcements in the Union Budget 2015-16 have given us reasons to believe that the central assistance to Assam will get reduced substantially.
There have been severe cuts in allocations in important sectors," Gogoi told reporters here.
"The announcements in the Union Budget that there would be a change in the funding pattern of CSS will impact the state," he said.
"The Assam government requests continuance of the existing pattern of funding of the CSS, which may be 100 per cent funded by the Centre or in the ratio of 90:10 for Special Category States like Assam," he said.

"A very crucial Flagship Programme, ICDS for example, has witnessed a 50 per cent reduction in allocation at the national level, which will have an effect in allocations to states, including Assam," he added.

The central government is considering the restructuring of the CSS, which after careful examination were redesigned and restructured in June 2013, Gogoi said.
"At that time, the number of CSS was brought down from 142 to 66. It appears that there is a move to further do away with a large number of CSS and to even reduce the number of very important Flagship Programmes from the existing 17," he said.

"The Assam government opposes any move to discontinue any of the CSS further without consultation with states on a scheme by scheme basis. More importantly, Flagship Programmes which are aimed at achieving very important socio-economic objectives besides employing large number of people should not be discontinued at all," the Chief Minister said.
"As Assam did not receive any communication on the resource allocation for 2015-16, including the funding pattern for CSS from the 'NITI Aayog' or from the Ministry of Finance, allocations for schemes in the State Budget for 2015-16 were made based on the normal assumptions about growth in central assistance," he said.

"The Assam Assembly accordingly passed the state budget with a proposed plan outlay of Rs 26,338.70 crore. However, the Union Budget for 2015-16 has a very drastic reduction in the allocation of funds for many important schemes," Gogoi said.
Altogether 12 programmes including Block Grants like Special Plan Assistance, Normal Central Assistance, Backward Region Grant Fund, Special Central Assistance for Hill Areas, etc -- which received budgetary support from the Centre till 2014-15 -- have now been completely delinked from the central support, he said.