Apparently considering it to be against the basic tenets of federalism as enshrined in the Constitution, more and more State Governments have started reacting disapprovingly to the NITI Aayog’s intervention in State affairs.
There has been considerable exasperation among the States as the NITI Aayog has appointed senior All India Service (AIS) officers as “Prabhari Officers” for 115 backward districts across the country without proper consultations with the State Governments.
Sources familiar with the development said Odisha and West Bengal have rejected the advisory of the NITI Aayog asking the State Governments to ask its District Magistrates to attend the Prabhari Officers meet on January 4-5.
It may be recalled here that earlier when the NITI Aayog had invited all the Chief Ministers to attend the Governing Council meeting on April 23 last, Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Delhi opted to stay away from it.
Now when the NITI Aayog has invited the State Governments to attend the meeting for “convergence, integration and focused attention to backward districts”, both Odisha and West Bengal have said no as they do not agree the way the Aayog is determining ‘backward districts”.
Unilateral identification of the districts and labeling them as “Most Backward and Backward in Different Manners” will have deep impact on the collective psyche of the people of the area, feel the State Government officials here.
Eight districts from Odisha and five from West Bengal have been identified and listed as “Backward” by the NITI Aayog.
The Odisha Government raising the issue of funding the backward districts in KBK time and again notwithstanding, the Central assistance for Area Specific Development Programs like Special Plan for KBK, Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Left Wing Extremists (LWE) Affected districts have been stopped.
Though these districts are backward in every sense of the term, no Central assistance is available for these areas, rued a State Government official.
Unique geographic and demographic aspects of different States and districts give rise to certain developmental challenges, which need to be addressed to by identification of developmental gaps, convergence of resources, sustained efforts to bridge the developmental gaps along with continuous monitoring at different levels, the official said.
Keeping in view these objectives, the State Government has assigned Secretary level officers to each district including the eight districts identified by the Union Government to make extensive field visits during first week of every month to oversee the implementation of development programmes.
Besides, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) level officers were appointed as mentoring officers of a few focus districts so as to ensure effective coordination among the different departments and suggest various location specific initiatives for overall development of these districts.
When the State Government is fully engaged with its development agenda aiming at inclusive growth of the State, any deviation to engage themselves with “Prabhari Officers” will be counterproductive, pointed out a senior official.
The NITI Aayog has identified Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Koraput, Balangir and Dhenkanal as backward districts in Odisha, while in West Bengal, Aayog has notified Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia and Dakshin Dinajpur as backward districts.
The decision to appoint Joint Secretaries and Additional Secretaries as In-Charge (Prabhari) Officers for these districts has not found favour with both the State Governments.
However, the Odisha Government has made it abundantly clear that it welcomes any suggestion or any collaboration with the NITI Aayog based on mutual consultation.