TN,Bihar,Gujarat,Cgarh CMs skip reform panel meeting

Naveen slams Centre over deployment of Central Forces,says against federal structure

Blaming the Centre for trying to tamper with the federal structure enshrined in the Constitution,chief ministers of key states,including Bihar,Tamil Nadu,Gujarat and Chhattisgarh,skipped the Administrative Reform Committee ARC meeting in New Delhi.

Prominent among the non-Congress Chief Ministers who attended the meeting was Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. But he too did not mince words against the Centre. He opposed the power of the Union government to unilaterally deploy Central forces as it violates the basic federal structure. He was also against enactment of new laws to deal with federal crime.

Though Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar kept away,in his written speech,he slammed the government for the delay in discussing the second ARC report Public order: Justice for each8230;peace of all that came out in June 2007.

Only eight CMs and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi were present to discuss the ARC recommendations. Sushil Kumar Shinde,after taking over as Home Minister,had invited suggestions on all 153 recommendations from the state governments and UTs.

Cabinet ministers,including Shinde,Kapil Sibal,Veerappa Moily,C P Joshi and Jairam Ramesh,who were part of the group of ministers on ARC and junior ministers V Narayansamy,M Ramachandran and R P N Singh were present.

The Home Ministry has already dropped the National Counter Terrorism Centre NCTC proposal.

Congress CMs,including Prithviraj Chavan,Ashok Gehlot,Veerbhadra Singh,Shiela Dikshit,Kiran Reddy and Bhupinder Singh Hooda,also skipped the meeting. The first-ever meeting convened by Shinde after he took as Home Minister was not even get attended by non-Congress CMs Akhilesh Yadav,Narendra Modi,Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh,Mamata Banerjee and J Jayalalithaa.

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However,in her written speech,Jayalalithaa termed the ARC recommendations as outdated and impractical and demanded more funds to modernise the police force. Recently,the Centre had cut down its share to the states in modernisation projects from 75 per cent to 60 per cent.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Umashankar Gupta,in his written speech,said,Law and order is a state subject and in its present shape and existence,the Centre cannot,without interfering with the Constitution,make it a subject matter of its intervention.

Despite criticisms from states,the Home Ministry said,The free and frank views of the states will now be examined and the government will take decisions on these recommendations,keeping in view the views expressed by the participants.