Yogi seeks funds from Centre for development of Bundelkhand, Purvanchal

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath sought more funds from the Centre. Photo: PTI

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday sought more funds from the Centre for the development of his state's backward regions like Bundelkhand and Purvanchal. Addressing a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council, the Chief Minister said all states should get more funds for various development activities. Sources said Adityanath urged the central government to provide more funds for the development of Purvanchal, a region comprising parts of eastern UP and western Bihar, and Bundelkhand, a region infamous for droughts which the state shares with Madhya Pradesh. The Chief Minister spoke in presence of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the meeting. Adityanath's remarks came days after his announcement of loan waiver to state's 2.1 crore small and marginal farmers totaling Rs 36,359 crore. The meeting discussed on Centre-State relations, Centre-State relations on Finance as recommended by the M M Punchhi Commission. The recommendations in Volume III of the Punchhi Commission report are related to Centre-State financial relations and cover the subjects of fiscal transfers to states, the Goods and Services Tax and the Centre-State fiscal relations. The discussions centred around various aspects of Centre-State relations having implications for governance and flowing from Constitutional provisions. This was for the first time the new Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister spoke at a meeting which was attended by central ministers and chief ministers of states. Apart from Jaitley, Singh and Adityanath, the meeting was attended by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, besides his Tripura and Chhattisgarh counterparts Manik Sarkar and Raman Singh. Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, who are also members of the Council, did not attend the meeting and sent their representatives