Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday called for drastic recast of the Constitution to give the country a genuinely federal structure. Badal emphasised that the Centre should have exclusive jurisdiction on subjects of national concerns, such as Defence, External Affairs, Currency, Railways and Communications and a few others.
“Federalism is the only way to ensure speedy development to make India a true economic superpower and a world leader. Strong states mean a strong India. We stand for a strong and genuinely federal India,” said Badal while sharing his views in the Chief Ministers’ meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the need of replacing Planning Commission with a new mechanism in tune with the federal principle.
Badal said that the formula for distribution of resources between the Centre and the states needs to be drastically reversed. “States must get a 50 percent share out of the central taxes and non-tax revenue, instead of the present 32 percent and these funds should be given in an untied manner, without prior conditionalities,” he said.
He said that the distribution among states also should be based on a transparent formula in an untied manner instead of through political discretion under which larger states walk away with all the funds.
“At present, the share of untied grants to states constituted only 15 percent of the plan funds and the remaining 85 percent were determined by the Centre. These should be completely reversed, with the states getting 85 percent as untied funds,” he said.
Badal underscored the need for a formula to give weightage to share of the Scheduled Caste population in a state, locational disadvantage such as live international border and contribution to National Food Security, among others.
He also welcomed the proposed Council of Chief Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to replace the Planning Commission for making the goal of cooperative federalism a reality.
Terming the CMs’ conference as historic for the country as henceforth the planning for the growth of this country would undergo drastic change with states having more say in the development of the states and the country, Badal said that in the last 67 years of Independence, the development process had become unitary in nature.
“SAD is the first party in the country to advocate a federal structure for the country and for decentralising authority and planning process. Now, the entire country is advocating what we did. We welcome the initiative of the Prime Minister on making the planning process truly federal, with greater fiscal and planning autonomy to states,” said Badal.
Badal also strongly advocated the need for replacing the “archaic” Planning Commission with a meaningful alternative mechanism in tune with the federal spirit of the Constitution, but added that the exercise must go beyond a mere change in name. “The temptation to create a new body in its place should be resisted. More important than the nomenclature of the body is its composition, its mandate and terms of reference…What is required is a fundamental change of approach,” he added.
Badal said that the Commission which was superimposed on the country’s constitutional structure through a mere administrative order violates the federal spirit, as it places excessive powers regarding planned development in the hands of the Centre. In this background, now the time has come for a drastic recasting of the constitution to make it genuinely federal in the light of our experience of the past 67 years.
Badal suggested that the proposed Council to be named as National and States Development Council (NSDC) having constitutional status and statutory powers leading to elimination of discretionary powers. Apart from taking policies decisions, the Council should also deliberate the country's proposed stand before forums like World Trade Organisation (relating to agriculture etc), SAARC (inter-country border trade etc) which directly affects the states.
He also opined that an executive body comprising advisors, experts and specialists should be put in place to assist the Council. Keeping in view the federal structure, the members of the Executive Body should be drawn from the states.
Badal also suggested for the establishment of Regional Councils consisting of the Chief Ministers of similarly placed states and chaired by the PM to converge and speed up the process of development.
likewise, the State Planning Board should also be restructured to bring them in tune with changed socio-economic environment. Besides these, the Prime Minister should hold meetings with the Chief Minister of each state once in a quarter to resolve many burning issues.
He said that the NSDC should meet at least twice a year to deal with issues like the Indian economy, flagship programmes of the Union Government, human resource development, poverty alleviation, energy and environment.
Similarly, the Regional Councils should meet bi-annually for strengthening economic and social development in the region. He said that although Punjab was in favour of continuation of five year plan cycle at the national level, but it wanted States to have autonomy for preparation of annual plans.
In a significant suggestion, he advocated doing away with the prevalent system of seeking approval from the Centre for their annual plans. He demanded the Five year Plan to be formulated in the background of perspective or long term plan, laying down the foundations of the future vision of the economy.