Tamil Nadu government on Sunday pitched for a stronger role for states in the new mechanism that will replace the Planning Commission.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech had announced that the Commission, set up in 1950, would be abolished and replaced with a more relevant institution.
In his address at a meeting in New Delhi convened by the Prime Minister to discuss about new institution that will replace the Planning Commission, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam recalled that Modi had highlighted the need to bring states to the Centre of the development process as the primary motivation to replace the Planning Commission.
Besides the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers, the meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
"This is a welcome emphasis. In our constitution, for reasons of administrative efficiency and convenience, more of the taxation powers are vested with the Central Government.
"But the responsibilities for actual delivery of many resource intensive public services - maintenance of public order, public health, agriculture, education and social security -- are vested with the States which are much closer to the people," he said.
Panneerselvam also criticised the decades-old institution besides Central ministries for being "arrogant and condescending" in their approach to proposals and suggestions from state governments.
The states were particularly 'at the mercy' of the Central departments, and were not treated as equal partners in governance and development process, "but as mere local supplicants," he charged.
"It often seems to be forgotten that it is the same people who vote the central government to power and also the state governments. It is the same people whom both levels of government need to serve," he said while pitching for state Chief Ministers being given representation in the new body to make planning a federally empowered function.
"We have also seen a steady shift in real political and economic power away from the Centre. State level parties and leaders are now far more significant players.
"These should not be seen as centrifugal or fissiparous trends that have to be curbed, but as a manifestation of India's maturing as a nation with diversity and as a democracy," he said.
Panneerselvam said the Planning Commission was set up as 'purely an advisory body' with the executive responsibility lying with governments but its process of consultation with the latter was 'weak.'
"Over the years, there has been accretion of direct executive functions with a dilution of the advisory function.
The body has failed to wield the necessary intellectual clout, partly because of shortcomings in its own composition and also because of greater intellectual capacity elsewhere in Indian society," he said in an official release here.
On the new body proposed to replace Planning Commission, he said that states should be given representation in it and there is a need to "ensure that the Council of Chief Ministers does not become a ritualistic exercise similar to the National Development Council or the Inter State Council," he said.
There was an opportunity to 're-order Centre-state financial relations' in lines with contemporary reality of political economy, Panneerselvam said and urged Modi to adopt a 'bold approach' for this purpose.
He recalled Jayalalithaa had already stressed that the 'greatest proportion' if not the entire fund flow from the Centre to the states must be on the basis of recommendations of the 'constitutionally mandated Finance Commission.' Panneerselvam suggested that the proposed new institution should be spared of dealing with Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and Direct Benefit Transfer as they were executive functions which should be confined to the parent Ministries of the Central government.
He also expressed the state government's opposition to monetise and transfer in cash the subsidy element under the Public Distribution System including kerosene and fertilizers, saying the 'concern is not just the quantum of subsidy, but more importantly, access to and timely availability of commodities.'
He asked the Centre to effect transfer of cash to bank accounts of beneficiaries through state governments as it would be an 'administratively sound practice.
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