Patna,(BiharTimes): In a significant departure the ever-quarrelling political parties of Bihar on Saturday agreed on joint memorandum to the 14th Finance Commission for greater devolution of funds totalling Rs 4,00,000 crore to the state for the 2015-2020.

Speaking at the all-party meeting organized by Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) former deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, who also served as the state’s finance minister for seven and a half years, said the state got more than its demand of Rs 75,000 crore during the 12th Finance Commission. During 13th Finance Commission the amount was more than doubled to Rs 1,72,000 crore.

He said that now the demand should be drafted in such a way that Bihar gets Rs four lakh crore.

Modi sought the constitution of Seventh Pay Commission by the Centre and said a demand should be made that the Centre shoulder the additional burden likely to fall on the states.

He demanded separate grants for malnutrition and urbanization and the health equalization grant, which was dropped by the Finance Commission last time. He said the Centre was making laws for implementation of its schemes in states and demanded that the Centre share the financial burden for this purpose.

State water resources minister, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, while representing JD(U), agreed to ADRI’s introductory observations that the terms of reference of 14th Finance Commission is heavily loaded in favour of the Centre.”

He said inter-state disparities have increased and equitable development can only be achieved if backwardness and special situation of the states are taken into account to formulate a better devolution formula.

He said floods are a permanent feature and in a federal structure the onus of meeting the burden of calamity arising out of international issue should rest on the Centre.

The minister called for inter-liinking of rivers and further increase in green coverage and strengthening of off grid power generation in the state.

RJD representive Ashok Kumar Sinha also said that flood should be declared as a national calamity.

Former state Congress chief Anil Sharma stressed on funds for job-oriented education and agro-based industries, besides minority development.

Sarvoday Sharma of the CPM said monopolization of funds by the Centre was against the concept of federalism and democracy.

U N Mishra of CPI stressed making demand for funds commensurate with the requirement of the state.

Speaking in the backdrop of the Raghuram Rajan Committee report, Satyajit Singh of the PHD Chamber of Commerce, said Bihar should get greater devolution of funds.

Asha Sinha, Head of Economics department, Patna University, stressed on special package for waste management.

Representatives of Bihar Industries Association and Bihar Chamber of Commerce also made their suggestions.

ADRI director Prabhat P Ghosh gave a PowerPoint presentation on needs of Bihar and said fiscal transfer to states is necessary to make the whole nation into one economic space.

Urging the participation for consensus to put weight to the demand for greater devolution of funds ADRI’s member secretary Shaibal Gupta, who conducted the proceedings, said the joint memorandum would contain five broad chapters. He said the first chapter would mention the background, detailing overall regional inequalities prevailing in the country and the arrangement of fund transfers through the Finance Commissions and Planning Commissions over the years. In the second chapter, the terms of reference of the Commission in the perspective of backwardness of states will be dealt. The third chapter would describe the present status of Bihar while points for consideration of the Commission are proposed to be presented in Chapter IV. Chapter V deals with the suggested criteria and weightage to be given to Bihar.Incidentally, the demand for special category status did not figure in the meeting.