PANJIM: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has urged the Union government to replace all the existing Centrally-funded schemes with the annual Block Grant basis, which will enable the State to have a fair share of revenue.
Parsekar, participating in the first ever NITI Aayog meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, requested that all the 66 centrally-sponsored schemes for Goa be replaced with a lump-sum annual grant, thereby allowing the State to formulate its own schemes for development.
“The Centrally-sponsored schemes should be given on an annual Block Grant basis. The existing central schemes have no benefits for a developed State like Goa,” he said adding, that a detailed representation would be made in this regard shortly.
The chief minister said that the Central schemes for various projects are designed keeping in mind the requirements of respective States. The benefits of schemes like the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna cannot be extended to States like Goa, considering the parameters required to qualify for the grants, he added.
The chief minister, in his first meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December last year, had made a similar demand and had termed the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula on allocation of funds as “unfair” to developed States like Goa.
