‘States have suffered under Modi govt’

-The Hindu Business Line

Cut in funds is a major setback: civil society activists

New Delhi: Economist Prabhat Patnaik and civil society activist Aruna Roy criticised the Narendra Modi government over various issues on Wednesday. Releasing a report card on the first year of NDA rule, they said the government is not displaying transparency and accountability to the people.

Patnaik said all the explanation that the Centre is giving about the increase in State share of taxation from 32 per cent to 42 per cent is completely misleading, as the total transfer of Central budget to States has been significantly reduced from 6.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent of the GDP.

He said this reduction of funds transfer to the States is going to prove extremely harmful for all States, particularly the poorer ones such as Uttarakhand, Bihar and Odisha. “With the introduction of GST the autonomy of the States to raise their own resources and levy taxes would be further curtailed,” he said.

He added that there have been systematic efforts to roll back all rights based legislations such as MGNREGA, and destroy vital institutions such as the Planning Commission and National Development Council, where CMs would often criticise the Centre and ensure that the federal structure is not trifled with.

The hallmark of the present government is to brook no dissent, said Roy. It seeks to silence all civil society organisations that have even the mildest difference of opinion with the government and, wherever possible, adopt the highly undemocratic route of ordinance, she added.

Alleging that the Centre is trying to undermine the Right to Information Act, Roy said all the rights that the civil society had fought hard for over two decades are being undermined in the most blatant manner.