Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on December 4 called for a wider debate on harmonising welfare and development objectives. “We are alive to a scenario of governments indulging in doling out freebies for obvious reasons. While ensuring welfare and social security of the needy is an important obligation of governments, it is time there is a wider debate on harmonising welfare and development objectives. Expenditures must be carefully balanced so that both short-term and long-term development objectives get equal attention,” said VP Naidu.