The Hindu : National : North-East Chief Ministers' plea

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Wednesday, Jun 30, 2004

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National

North-East Chief Ministers' plea

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 29. The Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, while speaking today at the two-day Chief Ministers' conference on `Poverty Alleviation and Rural Prosperity through Panchayati Raj,' raised the issue of construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal which could usher in rural prosperity.

The Chief Ministers from the North-East urged the Centre to change the ratio of counterpart funds from these States from 75:25 to 90:10.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Rajasekhara Reddy, blamed the suicides by farmers in the State on debts and other causes. His Karnataka counterpart, Dharam Singh, alleged that the previous NDA Government had not done justice when his State faced drought last year.

The other States demanded additional funds for programmes on housing, roads and sanitation.

The convener of the conference and Rural Development Minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, said the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance Government could not be implemented without the support of the States and the Panchayati Raj institutions, which were the implementation agencies. The conference had been called to ascertain the ``bottlenecks'' and constraints in the smooth implementation of rural development programmes.

Invoking Gandhiji for his vision of gram swaraj, the Minister for Petroleum and Panchayats, Mani Shanker Aiyar, said that it was the Centre's responsibility to ensure adherence to the Constitution in regard to panchayats but the responsibility for doing so vested with the States. ``Hence the need for creative, constructive interaction between the Centre and the States.''

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