Modis govt snubs central minister Jena,declines to host him in state

Modi has turned down a request to review the 20-point programme and centrally-sponsored schemes.

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Months ahead of elections to the Gujarat assembly,the government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi has turned down a request from union minister Srikant Jena to visit the state to review the 20-point programme and centrally-sponsored schemes.

Jena,minister of state for statistics and programme implementation,had informed Gujarat that he wanted to visit Ahmedabad on July 9 and 10 to hold review meetings. But the state government communicated to officials in my ministry that it was not interested,and would not be able to cooperate, Jena told The Indian Express.

As a result,Jena has had to put off his visit for now. But he insisted that he would finalise fresh dates to travel to Gujarat once the presidential election process was over.

We normally dont get this kind of response from any state government. I dont know why Gujarat has acted in such an over-sensitive manner. If they have done a good job,they should have nothing to hide. In fact,the whole idea of such a review is to help the state governments. There is no politics anywhere, Jena said.

The ministry has informed the cabinet secretariat about the development. T C A Anant,secretary in the ministry who is also the Chief Statistician of India,said he had been made aware of some logistical constraints in the ministers programme,and had written to the cabinet secretary seeking advice.

The Gujarat government confirmed that Jenas proposed visit had not materialised. The reason,Additional Chief Secretary Varun Nath Maira said,was that the central government had sought information for the proposed meeting in a format in which Gujarat no longer collects or stores data.

They had sought information on 65 points in their letter informing us about the ministers Jenas desire to come and review the programmes. The format in which they wanted this information8230; we dont collect information here in that manner, Maira told The Sunday Express.

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The Government of India is at least 10 years behind us,mainly because it has to deal with all kinds of states. In Gujarat,we monitor physical outcomes,and not the source of money from which the programme was implemented,which the Centre wanted to know. So we informed them that it will take us some time to collect the data. A review without adequate data would have been meaningless. We are already in the process of collecting data as required by them, Maira said.

Also,the officer said,reviews of the 20-point programme are generally not done by the minister. I informed the officials in Delhi that if their minister Jena comes,my minister would have to be present as well. And I would have to take clearance from my minister whether he was available on those dates or not, he said.

A senior official in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,however,said there was nothing unusual in the minister wanting to personally attend the review meeting. Jena,the official said,had travelled to Orissa in June for a similar meeting. This ministry is mandated to monitor the 20-point programme and centrally-sponsored schemes. The Centre always reserves the right to review programmes funded by it in any state at any time. And it is the ministers prerogative to decide at what level the review would be carried out. The reluctance of the Gujarat government is inexplicable, he said.