Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 19 (IANS) A government-appointed panel tasked to review the balance of power between the central and state governments submitted its report to Home Minister P. Chidambaram Monday.
The Commission on Centre-State Relations (CCSR), led by Justice (retd) Madan Mohan Punchhi, was asked to take a fresh look at the relative roles and responsibilities of the various levels of government and their inter-relations, an official statement said.

Constituted in April 2007 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, the panel was asked for recommendations on subjects like the sharing of funds between the central and state governments, the role of the central government during caste and communal conflicts, and the planning and implementation of big projects such as the interlinking of rivers.

The report, containing seven volumes, was presented to the home minister in the presence of the members of the commission who includws Dhirendra Singh and V.K. Duggal, both former secretaries to the government; N.R. Madhava Menon, former director of National Judicial Academy; and Vijay Shankar, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“After receiving the report, the home minister said that it would be processed expeditiously,” it added.

However, experts are of the view that lack of political consensus may put paid to the implementation of any reforms recommended in the panel report, which comes nearly two decades after the Justice Rajinder Singh Sarkaria Commission submitted its report on the issue.

“A comprehensive review of the centre-state relations was undertaken by the Sarkaria Commission in the mid-eighties. Both polity and economy of the country have since undergone profound changes posing new challenges,” the statement said.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the party was looking forward to the CCSR report with “great anticipation”.

“We expect the recommendation will unleash a paradigm which could change centre-state relations in the country,” Tewari said.

However, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Ravi Shankar Prasad said the central and state governments should work in tandem “rather than encroachment in times of tragedies like that of Dantewada and deteriorating internal security scenario”.

Prasad was referring to the growing Maoist insurgency in mineral rich central India where Leftist rebels massacred 76 security personnel April 6. Experts believe that poor coordination between the union and state governments is one of the reasons for the country’s failure to curb Leftist extremists.