The Group of Ministers, headed by Agri Min Sharad Pawar, is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Thursday to discuss the long-pending issue of restructuring of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).

“The GoM meeting is scheduled for tomorrow. The restructuring of 170-odd schemes into 79 will be discussed for efficient implementation and monitoring,” a senior government official said on Wednesday.

However, there are differences of opinion among ministries on trimming of some of the schemes and these issues will also be deliberated in the meeting, the official added.

At the end of 11th Plan (March 2012), there were 173 CSS and Additional Central Assistance (ACA) schemes.

Concerned over proliferation of CSS and ACA schemes, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget speech had announced that “the schemes will be restructured into 70 schemes. Each scheme will be reviewed once in two years”.

A committed headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi had earlier recommended bringing down CSS to 59 from 147 to avoid overlap.

The Chaturvedi committee report had said the number of CSS with small outlays do not achieve the objective of making an impact across states.

It had also proposed to have a system of flexi-funds, under which state governments can use 20 percent of the Budget allocated for CSS (10 percent in case of flagship schemes), within the broader framework of the programme.