CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Finance Minister K M Mani and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala have found a genuine case in the demand for redefining Central-State relations.
Speaking at a symposium organised by the AKG Study and Research Centre here on Wednesday, they said the state was getting a raw deal when it came to sharing of the Central Government’s tax revenue.
Inaugurating the symposium, Pinarayi Vijayan said that though the Constitution had envisaged a federal system for the country, the Centre had usurped a lot of powers of the state and it became unitary in its character.
‘’The State-Centre relation has to be restructured,’’ he emphasised. Pinarayi said that the Sarkaria Commission report presented to the Central Government in 1995 had also recommended the restructuring of the Centre-State relations.
He said the Centre was imposing the neo-liberal policies on the State Government using the Finance Commissions. By forcing the states to reduce the fiscal deficit and stipulating a timeframe for economic programmes, the Finance Commission has been mounting pressure on the State Government to implement the neo-liberal policies of the Centre, the CPM leader said.
Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister K M Mani stressed the urgent need for a scientific restructuring of the Centre-State relations.
Mani said that with the decentralisation of powers, the State Governments had to concede many of their powers to the local bodies. However, they had to provide financial stability to the local self-government institutions, Mani said.
He wanted the Central Government also to grant some more of its powers to the states and increase the tax share of the states.
Joining them in the demand for a restructuring the Centre-State relations, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said that he also shared the view that there was a concentration of powers at the Centre.
The Finance Commissions had been giving a raw deal to the states when it came to tax revenue sharing, Chennithala said.
He urged the Central Government to make timely changes in the relations with states.
He also said that the Finance Commissions should not ‘’punish’’ the state for its high social development index.
The Congress leader said that the norms should not be uniform for all states while sharing the Central funds and projects.
However, he said a strong Centre and strong States were essential for better Centre-State relations.
He also wanted the state to have more Central investments.
At the same time, the state also should attract private investments, the KPCC president said.