BENGALURU: Strongly advocating steps to be taken by the Union government to strengthen relations between states and the Union government, home minister, Dr G. Parameshwar, on Saturday asserted that it was essential to institutionalise the process of consultation between New Delhi and the states on legislation under the concurrent list.
Addressing the 11th meeting of Inter-State Council in New Delhi, Dr Parameshwar argued that states must have greater autonomy in respect of subjects in the state list.
"Harmonious operation of the concurrent list could be considered as co-operative federalism at its best if the Union government extremely restrains in asserting parliamentary supremacy over the states,” he contended.
According to him, when a Bill is reserved for consideration of the President, a time limit should be prescribed within which the President should take a decision whether to accord his assent or to direct the Governor to return it to the state legislature or seek the opinion of the Supreme Court regarding its constitutionality.
"It is desirable that six months will be appropriate time limit in this regard," he suggested. Although he welcomed the 14th Finance Commission's recommendations, Dr Parameshwar appealed that it was very important that the Union government takes the entire financial responsibility for implementation of various central legislation even though states are involved in their implementation.
"Our experience in some, like Right to Education (RTE) Act and MNREGA where we have faced problems of both inadequate as well as delayed releases, raises our concern," he charged. He demanded the Union government to implement the 14th Finance Commission's recommendations.
