Thrissur, Oct 12: Kerala chief minister A K Antony said today the Centre should liberalise its financial assistance and plan funds allocation to states as several states are faced with serious financial crisis. Addressing a press conference here, Antony said it was essential for the Centre to adopt a favourable attitude towards states in the case of fund allocation.
Antony said that Prime Minister A B Vajpayee had convened a meeting of the chief ministers, finance ministers and others concerned at New Delhi on Oct 18, to discuss the financial problems of the states. Kerala would stress the need for making the Centre's plan loans 50 per cent and grant 50 per cent as against 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively at present, he said.
He said that if the Centre did not liberalise its financial assistance to the states, the latter could not undertake developmental work.
The last finance commission's award had resulted Kerala losing over Rs.3000 crore, he said.
He said that if a consensus was arrived at the proposed meeting to solve the financial problems of the states, Kerala would implement it. Bureau Report