Healthy competition good for states: Rajnath Singh at Inter-State Council meeting

“Now every state can formulate and implement schemes as per their respective needs,” Rajnath Singh said.

It is natural for differences between states as well as between states and the Centre to have an adverse impact on issues pertaining to execution of development projects, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday, addressing Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of states and Union Territories at the meeting of the Inter-State Council at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Calling for healthy competition between states, Rajnath said, “Our government believes that the nation cannot develop without equitable development of all states. In the process of development of states, apart from the cooperation of the Centre, there should be healthy competitive atmosphere between states, and they (states) should adopt best practices of each other.”

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Batting for close coordination between the states and the Centre on formulation and implementation of development related policies, Singh said the NDA government’s main focus was to promote federalism — whether through cooperative federalism or competitive federalism.

Singh said the creation of NITI Aayog had done away with the inherent deficiencies of the “one size fits all” polices of the erstwhile Planning Commission. “Now every state can formulate and implement schemes as per their respective needs,” he said.