In a unique initiative by Niti Aayog to resolve contentious issues of states vis-à-vis the Centre by holding direct deliberations between representatives of both sides, the government think-tank has h
In a unique initiative by Niti Aayog to resolve contentious issues of states vis-à-vis the Centre by holding direct deliberations between representatives of both sides, the government think-tank has helped in sorting out a host of pending issues related to the Telangana government with various Union ministries.
Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya on Thursday convened a meeting between senior officials of the Telangana government and those from six Central ministries of petroleum, coal, power, environment, finance and culture to help resolve several outstanding issues.
The think-tank plans to hold more such interactions between states and Central ministries in future in order to promote cooperative federalism and evolve better coordination between states and the Union, official sources said.
The Niti Aayog held a two-hour meeting on Jan-uary 28 between the Te-langana government officials and representatives of the aforementioned Central ministries, which was chaired by Mr Panagariya.
About 20 important issues flagged by state government relating to ministries of coal and power, petroleum & natural gas; environment, forests & climate change, culture, finance and rural development were discussed.
At the end of the meeting, nearly all but two or three issues could be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. Substantial progress was made even on issues that could not be brought to full resolution during the meeting, official sources informed.
State special representative T. Ramachandru and special chief secretary (finance) Pradeep Chandra expressed deep satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting.
