Rajnath calls for consensus in Inter-State Council meet

New Delhi, Nov 25 (IANS) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said the Inter-State Council and its Standing Committee have been rejuvenated and that it was important for everyone to promote the spirit of cooperation with greater zest and zeal to arrive at a consensus on issues.

Addressing the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of Inter-State Council (ISC) chaired by him, he said a number of steps have been taken in recent years by the Central government to promote cooperative federalism.

He said that the meeting of the Inter-State Council, which was held in July 2016, happened after a gap of 10 years.

"Subsequently to that, meetings of the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council are being periodically convened to lend speed and purpose to the process of harmonizing centre-state relations," Rajnath Singh said.

Expressing satisfaction over regular and periodical meetings of zonal councils, he said the government's effort is to see at least one meeting of all these is held annually.

He stressed on the need to raise important issues linked to state-to-state and centre-state in the meetings to find resolution. "In 2016 and 2015, such 140 and 82 issues were respectively resolved," he said.

Rajnath Singh also expressed satisfaction over the deliberations held on Saturday in harmonious and congenial atmosphere for arriving at consensus on some complex issues that have been covered in the agenda notes.

The Standing Committee, at its meeting, considered 118 recommendations contained in Volumes III, IV and V of the Punchchi Commission and finalised its recommendations, a Home Ministry statement said.

The meeting discussed matters related to financial transfers from the centre to the states, Goods and Services Tax (GST), maintenance of communal harmony, deployment of central forces, migration issues, police reforms, structure and devolution of functions to local bodies, district planning, special provisions for Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas, criminal justice system and other internal security issues.

Rajanth Singh said that Volumes I and II were discussed during the 11th meeting held on April 9 this year, and Volumes VI and VII will be discussed during the next meeting.

"The recommendations of the Standing Committee on Punchhi Commission's report will then be placed before the ISC headed by the Prime Minister," he said.

The central government in 2005 set up the Punchhi Commission, under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice of India Madan Mohan Punchhi, and it submitted its seven volume report in 2010 containing 273 recommendations.

The 11th meeting of the ISC's Standing Committee had discussed 69 recommendations of the Punchhi Commission relating to the constitutional provisions on subjects such as the role of Governors, the ISC and assent to bills passed by legislative assemblies.

The meeting was also attended by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Chief Ministers Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) and Manik Sarkar (Tripura) as members of the committee.

Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Hardeep S. Puri were present as special invitees. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh were represented by their ministers.

Representatives of 30 Union Ministries and seven state governments were also present to assist the committee in its deliberations.