Panel led by ex-SC judge Kurian Joseph to study Centre-State dynamics, submit report by 2027
Chennai:Raising the demand for state autonomy, DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin appointed a high-level committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph, to look into a clutch of issues relating to the relations between the Union and state governments and make recommendations, 51 years after a high-level committee went into the same issue.
Making the statement under Rule 110 in the state Assembly on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the move coming at a moment when the states were being deprived of their rights was aimed at protecting the legitimate rights guaranteed under the Constitution and to improve Union-states relations.
Former vice-chancellor of the Indian Maritime University and retired IAS officer Ashok Vardhan Shetty and former vice-chairman of the State Planning Commission M. Naganathan are the other members of the committee that would examine and re-evaluate the Constitutional provisions, existing laws, orders, policies and arrangements that may have an impact on the relations between the Union and the states, he said.
The committee would also recommend measures to restore the subjects that had been moved to the ‘Concurrent List’ from the ‘State List’ of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution over time and come up with measures to address the challenges faced by states in delivering good governance and appropriate measures to ensure that the states had maximum autonomy in administration, legislature and judiciary without compromising on the unity and integrity of the country, Mr Stalin said.
The high level committee was urged to consider the recommendations of the P.V. Raja Mannar Committee and other commissions on Union-state relations formed in 1971, as well as the various political, social, economic and legal developments and submit its interim report by the end of January and final report in two years.
The formation of the committee was aimed to not just protect the interests of Tamil Nadu but the rights of all the states and of people of different languages, races, cultures and customs live in unity in the country enjoying the constitutional rights that protect them.
To promote the interests of the people, framers of the Constitution, under the leadership of B.R. Ambedkar, created the political and administrative system not for a unitary nation but a union of states with federal ideology and principles, Mr Stalin said, adding that the rights of the states were being taken away one by one, putting them in a situation where they had to fight for the basic rights.
Since the states were formed on the basis of linguistic rights, they had to be endowed with the powers that would help them progress to make a strong India and it was that realisation that had impelled Tamil Nadu to continuously proclaim the policy slogan of ‘autonomy for states, federalism at the centre’.
The slogan ‘state autonomy’ was first raised by then chief minister M. Karunandihi when no other state had taken any step on that regard, Mr Stalin said, reminding all of the formation of the committee, headed by retired chief justice of Madras High Court Raja Mannar to examine the relations between the Union and the state fovernments, more than half a century ago, in 1969.
The Chief Minister recounted the various moves of the present Union government which include adding more subjects to the ‘Concurrent List’ taking them off the ‘State List’, and said the need for state autonomy rose from the present need to establish social justice, remove economic inequality and provide opportunities for the oppressed in education.
Mentioning the imposition of Neet, he said the Bill passed by the Assembly to do away it was rejected and the National Education Policy -2020 was being sought to be thrust on the state for imposing Hindi. Also the funds for the state’s education were not being released by the Union government, he pointed out, stressing on the need for reversing ‘education’ to the ‘State List’.
