Raghuram Rajan panel had no reference to any state: FM

The Raghuram Rajan Committee Report and the reason for constituting that Committee had no reference to any particular state, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today.
He was speaking in Lok Sabha after Government today came under attack from both JD-U and BJP over delay in granting special status to Bihar.
Noting that the Raghuram Rajan Committee was appointed pursuant to his Budget Speech last year, the Finance Minister said the panel was appointed to appoint to identify states which are far from the average in India.
"States on several parameters are far away from the average of India. Therefore, we said that we should identify those states and work-out a mechanism by which those states can be helped," Chidambaram said.

"Let me make it clear that Report and the reason for constituting that Committee had no reference to any particular state. ...Therefore, a number of states are removed from the average. Therefore, we wanted to identify which those states are and find out a mechanism by which those states can be helped," he said.
The Minister said the Raghuram Rajan Committee had a wide representation and the report is at the active consideration of the Government.

"They identified some parameters, using which, the states can be identified and they rank the states. Based on that rank, we have circulated that Report to all concerned. The Report is at the active consideration," Chidambaram said.

"The second part of the Report says that a part of the Finance Commission recommendations, which is a Constitutional body, apart from the Planning Commission devolution of funds, there are other funds and the devolution of those funds, the distribution of those funds, could be done under the pattern or under the norms suggestions by the Raghuram Rajan panel.
"Those norms have also been circulated to all the ministries concerned. The ministries have been asked to give their suggestions and comments," he said.
Storming the Well, JD-U raised the issue of according special status to Bihar and accused the Centre of dilly dallying with the recommendations of a high-level government panel in this regard.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP) said Bihar has been "cheated" by the UPA government and "great injustice" is being done by the Centre by delaying the decision to grant special status to the state.