We believe in coop federalism: NITI Aayog

Hyderabad: In a sharp reaction to the allegations made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, NITI Aayog on Saturday said that it always believed in cooperative federalism. It was not correct to say that they were not consulting the states.

A press note released by the Press Information Bureau soon after the press conference of the Chief Minister, said that a delegation led by Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog met Telangana Chief Minister in Hyderabad on January 21, 2021 to discuss development issues pertaining to the State. It was the Chief Minister who did not respond to the requests made by NITI Aayog for a meeting, it said.

The NITI Aayog said it was unfortunate that the Chief Minister of Telangana had chosen not to participate in the Governing Council meeting. The Governing Council is a forum where the highest political leadership in the country at Centre and State levels deliberate on key development-related issues and agree on appropriate outcome oriented solutions for national development. It further said that before preparing the agenda for Sunday's meeting, the Governing Council held detailed consultations between Centre and States, including Telangana at Dharamshala in June 2022. The Conference was a culmination of six-month long deliberations wherein all States/ UTs, including Chief Secretary of Telangana participated.

The allegation of Telangana that states were not co-opted in preparation of agenda is not correct. With reference to the Water sector, the note said over the last four years, Government of India allocated Rs 3,982 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission for the State of Telangana.

However, the state chose to draw only Rs 200 crore. In addition, Rs 1,195 crore were released to Telangana under PMKSY-AIBP-CADWM during 2014-2015 to 2021-2022.

Overall allocation under the Centrally-Sponsored Schemes have increased from Rs 2,03,740 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 4,42,781 crore in 2022-23, i.e.

more than double during this period, in addition to the substantial hike in awards under the Fourteenth Finance Commission from 32% to 42%. Enough flexibility has also been built in for utilisation of funds allocated under CSS.