THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NITI Aayog’s full-time member and noted economist Bibek Debroy said that NITI Aayog would have to take up the now defunct Planning Commission’s role of fund transfers to states if chief ministers raise such a demand.
However, Dr Debroy said that as it stood NITI had “neither carrot nor stick” to deal with states.
“Earlier, chief ministers had to queue up in front of the Planning Commission for the release of annual funds. NITI has nothing to do with this process. No money will flow through NITI,” Dr Debroy said at a lecture on ‘Reform of Governance and Role of NITI Aayog’ organised by the Planning Board here on Tuesday.
Prof Amit Shovan Ray, director of Centre for Development Studies (CDS), wanted to know whether an alternative agency had been formed to transfer the funds.
Prof Ray also doubted the capability of the union Finance Ministry, which carries out the function now, to understand the needs of the state.
Dr Debroy said that any confusion regarding this would be settled not as an imposition from Delhi but by Chief Ministers’ Sub-Group of NITI Aayog.
“If the sub-group of chief ministers at any point of time feel that the transfers to them should flow through the NITI, it will definitely have to take up that responsibility,” Dr Debroy said.
Dr Debroy said that the word planning was consciously kept out of NITI’s framework. “Planning is used in multiple senses. We did this especially not to confuse the task of NITI with five-year plans,” he said.
He, however, spoke of reviving the practice of perspective planning, which looks at the country 20-30 years from now. Prof Ray hinted that this was a contradiction of sorts, that NITI too was involved in some sort of planning. Dr Debroy conceded. “We didn’t use the word to avoid confusion. But obviously it is planning,” he said.
Dr Debroy said that NITI would also function as a storehouse of data on the best and worst practices in the country and also as a think tank, which he hoped would trigger new thinking.
