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The Centre on Saturday came in for an all-round attack at the 56th meeting of the National Development Council (NDC), for its “stepmotherly” attitude towards non Congress-ruled States.
Dubbing the meet “ritualistic”, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi also accused the Centre of tinkering with the federal structure. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati advised the Government to rise above party politics over the issue of development.
The States’ strong criticism came even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, heading a Government riddled with scams and corruption, stressed on the need to collectively reverse the mood of negativism.
He called for striking the difficult balance between adversarial political positions and cooperation on long-term national agenda.
Jayalalithaa was the most vociferous of all and her written speech was laid down in her absence. She went to the extent of terming several of the Centre’s recent measures - like the proposed Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence Bill and the GST Bill as “fascist and anti-democratic” in nature.
She also raised doubts on whether the Centre considers the CMs even “partners”, let alone “equal partners”.
She, along with Modi, felt the NDC meeting was being convened more as a ritualistic exercise rather than to achieve any tangible outcome. However, Congress Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, besides their West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, took exception to this. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia countered, saying, “The value of rituals cannot be undermined.”
Making a strong plea for special category status to Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar resented the “tendency” of passing on financial burden of Central legislations to States. Highlighting the disconnect between administrative Ministries enacting Central laws in areas primarily in domain of the States, he demanded a “relook”, saying they have little knowledge of State finances.
Modi hit the Centre where it hurts it the most - on the issue of corruption. He said, “There is a credibility crisis today and people’s confidence in governance has been shaken to the core.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, he demanded the Centre release a white paper on funds being spent from the Government discretionary fund. “The Congress, in one of its conventions, had talked of doing away with the discretionary fund. On the contrary, lakhs of crores are being given as packages to States. We want to know the norms and fate of the fund,” said Modi.
The Tamil Nadu CM slammed the Centre, accusing it of “big brotherly attitude” and trying to weaken States with too much interference, reducing them to “glorified municipal corporations”. She said the new draft public private partnership framework unfortunately read more like an extract from a “college textbook” and less like an “operational policy document”.
Jayalalithaa called the Centre’s attitude “obstinate” on the matter of a common entrance test for professional courses and accused it of failing to arrest price rise.
Modi and Mayawati, who too did not attend the meeting, echoed her views, saying the Centre was being insensitive towards a problem hitting consumers hard and also adversely affecting investment, thus impacting pace of development.
Jayalalithaa noted, “The Centre seems to be hell bent on penalising non-Congress Governments…Despite repeated requests for special assistance, funds are not provided to Tamil Nadu while a special package has been given to West Bengal for the only reason that the present ruling party in West Bengal is an ally.”
She termed the Centre’s move of releasing funds into State and district level implementing agencies’ bank accounts as a deliberate attempt to bypass State Governments. “This violates the spirit of democratic decentralisation being preached often by the Centre,” said Jayalalithaa.
Mayawati asked the Centre to rise above “party politics” and achieve balanced and higher development by distributing resources to uplift lagging regions and neglected sections.
The PM, in his concluding speech, said the Planning Commission would take note of their suggestions while drafting the 12th Plan (2012-17).
Dubbing the meet “ritualistic”, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi also accused the Centre of tinkering with the federal structure. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati advised the Government to rise above party politics over the issue of development.
The States’ strong criticism came even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, heading a Government riddled with scams and corruption, stressed on the need to collectively reverse the mood of negativism.
He called for striking the difficult balance between adversarial political positions and cooperation on long-term national agenda.
Jayalalithaa was the most vociferous of all and her written speech was laid down in her absence. She went to the extent of terming several of the Centre’s recent measures - like the proposed Prevention of Communal & Targetted Violence Bill and the GST Bill as “fascist and anti-democratic” in nature.
She also raised doubts on whether the Centre considers the CMs even “partners”, let alone “equal partners”.
She, along with Modi, felt the NDC meeting was being convened more as a ritualistic exercise rather than to achieve any tangible outcome. However, Congress Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, besides their West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, took exception to this. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia countered, saying, “The value of rituals cannot be undermined.”
Making a strong plea for special category status to Bihar, CM Nitish Kumar resented the “tendency” of passing on financial burden of Central legislations to States. Highlighting the disconnect between administrative Ministries enacting Central laws in areas primarily in domain of the States, he demanded a “relook”, saying they have little knowledge of State finances.
Modi hit the Centre where it hurts it the most - on the issue of corruption. He said, “There is a credibility crisis today and people’s confidence in governance has been shaken to the core.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, he demanded the Centre release a white paper on funds being spent from the Government discretionary fund. “The Congress, in one of its conventions, had talked of doing away with the discretionary fund. On the contrary, lakhs of crores are being given as packages to States. We want to know the norms and fate of the fund,” said Modi.
The Tamil Nadu CM slammed the Centre, accusing it of “big brotherly attitude” and trying to weaken States with too much interference, reducing them to “glorified municipal corporations”. She said the new draft public private partnership framework unfortunately read more like an extract from a “college textbook” and less like an “operational policy document”.
Jayalalithaa called the Centre’s attitude “obstinate” on the matter of a common entrance test for professional courses and accused it of failing to arrest price rise.
Modi and Mayawati, who too did not attend the meeting, echoed her views, saying the Centre was being insensitive towards a problem hitting consumers hard and also adversely affecting investment, thus impacting pace of development.
Jayalalithaa noted, “The Centre seems to be hell bent on penalising non-Congress Governments…Despite repeated requests for special assistance, funds are not provided to Tamil Nadu while a special package has been given to West Bengal for the only reason that the present ruling party in West Bengal is an ally.”
She termed the Centre’s move of releasing funds into State and district level implementing agencies’ bank accounts as a deliberate attempt to bypass State Governments. “This violates the spirit of democratic decentralisation being preached often by the Centre,” said Jayalalithaa.
Mayawati asked the Centre to rise above “party politics” and achieve balanced and higher development by distributing resources to uplift lagging regions and neglected sections.
The PM, in his concluding speech, said the Planning Commission would take note of their suggestions while drafting the 12th Plan (2012-17).
