Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the NITI Aayog, attended by the Chief Ministers of the states.
The first meeting of the governing council of the new look plan body - NITI Aayog -- between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers, helped reach a consensus on the economic empowerment of states, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said today.
With his promise to provide more say to the states thorough the NITI Aayog, which replaces the Planning Commission, PM Modi had requested the chief minister's feedback on flagship Central schemes. Also on the anvil was evolving a roadmap for key areas of governance.
At the end of the meeting, Mr Jaitley told the media that three sub groups of chief ministers will be made under NITI Aayog to handle three key areas.
The first will provide inputs on 66 existing Central schemes and help decide whether they ought to be continued or cut down. The second will focus on provision of skilled manpower. The third will devise ways of developing institutional mechanisms and technical knowhow to carry on the Clean India campaign.
"The Swacch Bharat cannot be just a scheme, but has to become a part of our lives in perpetuity," the minister said.
The sub-groups likely to be announced soon are expected to submit reports within 30 to 45 days. Chief ministers can decide as per te or preference which sub group they want to join
Besides, two task forces will be formed in every state. "One will be for poverty alleviation, to take stock of what sort of programmes to be taken up in each state," Mr Jaitley said. "The other will be aimed at giving a push to agrarian sector, by taking stock of what state-specific measures are needed on this front."
The focus on agriculture was a fallout of PM Modi's meeting with economists and policy-makers on Friday. The economists had drawn PM Modi's attention to the need for a boost to the farm sector - the manufacturing sector is already getting enough attention through the "Make in India campaign," they had pointed out.
The NITI -- National Institute for Transforming India - Aayog, which replaced the 65-year-old Planning Commission, was set up by PM Modi on the New Year.
The body, headed by the Prime Minister, is expected to function like a think tank and give more say to state governments, which deeply resented the Planing Commission's power in allocating central funds to states and sanctioning capital spending.