Postpone decision on funding pattern: Maneka to Niti Aayog

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has asked the Niti Aayog to postpone the decision on restructuring of funding pattern of social sector schemes to next fiscal year, citing lack of clarity on certain issues, sources said.
She has also urged the plan body to use current financial year in working out the details of the schemes to ensure their smooth implementation, they said.
In a letter to Niti Ayog Task Force Head Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Gandhi raised concerns about the reduced budgetary allocation to the ministry, saying it will impact programmes that tackle malnutrition, issues of women and child welfare schemes, sources said.

The letter said that the restructuring exercise of the social sector schemes should have been done before the additional devolution of funds to states to bring clarity on new system of fund management.
It is also creating uncertainty among states as there is no clarity on what will be the Centre-states sharing after the devolution which might pull them to commit additional resources for these schemes, the letter stated.
Gandhi also said that the ministry will have to find a solution wherein it is able to continue to deliver on the objectives of the women and children welfare schemes in the light of reduced budgetary allocations.

She had also written a similar letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after the budget session requesting him to restore the Ministry's budget to original funds.
This year's annual budget has reduced fund allocation for the women and child welfare schemes.
In the annual budget, the ministry was allotted Rs 10,286.73 crore as compared to Rs 21,000 crore in 2014-15. It was a decrease of about 50 per cent.