Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) In a step likely to be resented by the states, Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday mooted the idea of transferring central funds for modernising police forces to the police chiefs instead of the state governments.
“Should we try to put in place a system for transfer of funds under the MPF (Modernisation of Police Forces) schemes directly to director general of police of the state,” Chidambaram asked after inaugurating a three-day meet of state police chiefs here.

He mooted the idea exactly a month after various state chief ministers, at the 54th National Development Council (NDC) meet July 25, resented the central government’s growing tendency to transfer funds directly to various agencies of the states, bypassing their legislatures.

The minister asked the police chiefs if he should consider transferring the central funds directly to them, suspecting that various states were not paying proper attention to modernising the police forces and not spending their share of funds for the purpose.

“Is your state making the required 25 percent contribution to the MPF Scheme,” he asked, adding: “Hope you will also tell us whether your governments have increased, in real terms, allocation under the head ‘police’.”

“Moreover, do you think, you have been delegated adequate financial powers to spend the money allocated to your departments,” Chidambaram asked.

He posed the questions despite being “mindful of the fact that police and law and order are state subjects and their primary responsibilities rest with the state governments”.

The minister sought the answers from the states, asserting that “at the same time, we recognise the responsibility of the central government to provide resources, intelligence, training facilities and paramilitary forces to the state government.”

Several state chief ministers, in their addresses to the NDC meet, accused the central government of imposing “one-size-fits-all” central scheme on states, without examining its efficacy for individual states, and handing over the funds for it directly to one or other state agency, bypassing the legislature.

The meet had been chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“In recent years, there has been a dangerous tendency on the part of central government ministries to transfer funds directly to Panchayati Raj institutions, bypassing the state government,” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had said.

“We have a well-defined federal structure and any tendency to tinker with it or disturb it will have grave consequences in the future,” he pointed out.

Modi’s concern was echoed by Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan.

“We demand that the sum spent on various central schemes should be directly handed over to the states to spend as per their own requirements, rather than on some uniform, one-size-fits-all basis,” he said.

“The union government has not only ignored this request but is now making available, under these schemes, large sums of money directly to various agencies in the state, bypassing the state government budget,” he rued.

“This erodes accountability and sets an unhealthy precedent,” he warned.

Even Congress-ruled states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan resented this central tendency.