New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar Friday told the Union government to stop
centrally-sponsored schemes and confine itself to making broad
policies for development, leaving their implementation to the
states as they have "unique" needs.
He suggested that the Centre should constitute a
strategic committee for states, decide a roadmap for five
years and then monitor the state`s performance on the set
targets.
"You (Centre) develop policy and broad roadmap. Leave
the decision on schemes for states," Kumar said addressing the
Union government while speaking at a roundtable on food
security here.
Asking the Union government to "stop
Centrally-sponsored schemes, he said, "every state has its
unique needs. You give us task...you decide a target and help
and monitor us. But why go into minute details?"
Speaking on the topic `Combating Food Inflation`, Kumar
said there was a need to change the mindset while framing
development policies.
Referring to the proposal of inter-linking of rivers in
Bihar, the Chief Minister rued that the Centre was still to
finalise the Detailed Action Plan even after lapse of three
years since his government submitted a proposal.
He said inter-linking or rivers could have helped the
state tackle the problem of floods.
Kumar also termed as a "joke" the Centre`s allocation
of Rs 400 crore for the Eastern India Green Revolution project
and said the government "needs to be cautious as the number of
BPL families would increase with the rise in food prices".
Talking about BPL families, he said the Centre
estimated them to be 65 lakh in number while the state`s
figures showed the number to be 1.4 crore.
He said the government of India needs to make a proper
policy about safeguarding the interests of farmers while
allowing entry of private sector into hybrid seed industry.
Listing out achievements of his government in
agriculture development and law order improvement, Kumar
urged the private investors to come to the state and help in
its turn around.
He said the state government needs their support in
policy, expertise, fund to take its development agenda
forward.
PTI
