States take Centre to task for announcing 6th Pay Commission

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Several states today took Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to task for announcing the setting up of the Sixth Pay Commission for central government employees without consulting them, stating that many of them had virtually gone bankrupt in the wake of the previous pay commission.

Participating in the ''India Today Chief Ministers' Conclave,'' they said the Centre should have taken the states into confidence before making the announcement as the move had always given rise to demands from state government employees for revision of pay scales on the lines of the Central Pay Commission.

Raising the issue at the conclave, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the economy of several states were ''shattered'' in the wake of the Fifth Pay Commission as they did not have sufficient financial resources for meeting the additional burden arising from the revision of pay scales.

The Centre should come forward to share at least part of the financial burden of the states which were not in a position to implement the central pay commission recommendations, he said.

His sentiments were endorsed by some of the states which took part at the conclave. Among the Chief Ministers present at the conclave were Y S Rajashekhara Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Naveen Pattnaik (Orissa), Arjun Munda (Jharkhand), Capt Amrinder Singh (Punjab), Dr Raman Singh (Chattisgarh), Shivraj Singh Chauhan (Madhya Pradesh), Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana) and Pratap Sinh Rane (Goa). Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi were among those who represented their respective states on behalf of their Chief Ministers.

Mr Modi said the Centre had no right to make such unilateral announcements in matters which had profound impact on the states.

Mr Mulayam Singh accused the UPA government of discriminating against Uttar Pradesh in the matter of funds allocation and sought a constitutional amendment for improving Centre-state relations. The other participants, however, did not agree with the demand, maintaining that the Centre-state relations could be improved within the present structure.

Mr Hooda said farmers in states like Haryana and Punjab suffered from the low minimum support prices (MSPs) announced by the Centre, keeping in view the national perspective. He, however, sharply differed with Cap Amrinder Singh on the issue of sharing of river waters, stating ''that dispute of his and mine will remain.'' Chief Ministers from mineral rich states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh demanded higher royalty for such natural resources.

Capt Amrinder Singh sought various criteria for states for the implementation of below poverty line (BPL) programmes as under the present guidelines, the state was not in a position to avail funds under the category, as few people qualified for the programmes. The poor of Punjab could not equated with the poor of Orissa, where the poorest people lived in Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) districts, he explained.

Mr Raman Singh wanted mineral royalty for states on ad valorem basis.

Dr Reddy said states should have greater financial freedom to have their own developmental programmes, depending upon their geo-physical characters.

Mr Pattnaik regretted that the Centre had reduced the allocations for the KBK districts by about Rs 600 crore during the Eleventh Plan (2007-12).

The primary focus of the conclave was on Centre-state relations.

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