No increase in financial devolution for HP, says state govt

There has been no increase in allocations by the Centre and the claims of Union minister J P Nadda in this regard are not based on facts, the Himachal Pradesh government said today.
Reacting to the statement of Nadda, an official spokesman said that he has nowhere specifically mentioned as to why the release of funds under the centrally-sponsored schemes amounting to Rs 3000 crore has been stopped and how the Centre plans to compensate the state for this loss.
He said that as far as increase in vertical tax devolution from 32 per cent to 42 per cent for all states was concerned, it does not reflect the true picture of central devolutions to the state.

He said that abolition of Planning Commission and its replacement by NITI Ayog had come as financial setback to Himachal and as a result, the state was not getting Normal Central Assistance (NCA), Special Central Assistance (SCA) and Special Plan Assistance (SPA) which were earlier recommended by the Planning Commission.
He said that this has resulted in a loss of Rs 3,000 crore to Himachal in 2015-16 and theannual Plan of the state was now being entirely funded by the state out of its own resources without any central assistance.
The spokesman further said that the acceptance of the State government's demand to fund all the centrally sponsored schemes in the ratio of 90:10 by the Government of India had not benefitted Himachal Pradesh because the budgetary allocations under all the centrally sponsored schemes across all the Central Ministries had been reduced drastically by the Union government.

The biggest loss the State had suffered was under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, MNREGA and Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), the spokesman added.
Nadda yesterday had termed the allegations of stoppage of central funds to the Himachal Pradesh as baseless.
Chief minister Virbhadra Singh's allegations are aimed at misleading the people to divert their attention from "collapse of governance" in the state, Nadda had said.