Centre does not act arbitrarily in sending funds to state, says Arun Jaitley

Rubbishing Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s repeated charge that the recommendations of the 14^th Finance Commission had caused huge losses to Uttarakhand, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the Centre does not act arbitrarily in sending funds to the state.

“Funding of states is not done arbitrarily by the Centre.  Well defined constitutional provisions are followed by the Centre in funding the states. The Finance Commission is a body created by the UPA and the funding of the states as per its recommendations has gone up from 32 per cent during UPA to 42 per cent during (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi’s government,” he told reporters here in the poll-bound state.

“This applies to all states not only to Uttarakhand,” he said.

Noting that any such charge reflected “lack of knowledge of the constitutional provisions”, he said any chief minister levelling such allegations should closely study what is laid down in the constitution.

Rawat often levelled the charge against the Centre when confronted with questions related to lack of development in the state.