NEW DELHI: Following up on her efforts to strengthen the bond between opposition parties against the BJP-led Centre, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool
Congress chief
Mamata Banerjee will be in Chennai on April 10 and 11 to meet the DMK leadership, a week after she met an array of political leaders including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Banerjee has also deputed two of her party MPs, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, to meet Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telegu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who will be landing in Delhi to meet other opposition leaders over the next two days.
Among issues that Banerjee plans to raise with DMK leader M Karunanidhi and M K Stalin and also with Naidu through her party MPs, is how states like Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are being deprived for being non-BJP ruled states on account of the
15th Finance Commission.
Accusing the Centre of going against federal structure of the Constitution in financial devolution, TMC will try to rally the opposition against the 15th Finance Commission as many states, not ruled by BJP, were “losing out,” O’Brien said on Monday. Banerjee will raise the issue during her meeting with the DMK leaders, he said.
“This Commission is anti-federal. States are losing out. States like Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu are been penalised and states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan are being awarded. Mamata Banerjee is reaching out to other parties, this will become a very important reference point for us. Next Tuesday she will raise the issue with the DMK leadership at Chennai,” O' Brien told reporters here.
After the attempt to bring no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha united the opposition parties in Parliament, the 15th Finance Commission could once gain bring them on one platform against the NDA government.
The Finance Commission, which has been authorised to decide on percentage of financial devolution and grants-in-aid, taking the
2011 Census as the basis for central assistance, would also decide increase in Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a decrease in subsidies for programmes meant for the poor.
TMC has accused the commission of “unilaterally” adopting the 2011 census without consulting the state governments. “States like Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh will lose Rs 20,000 crore over a period of five years and states which are been ruled by the BJP, like UP, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh would, gain. The government didn't even consult a single state government. There was no inter-state council meeting during NDA government,” O'Brien said.
The opposition parties are likely to raise the issue to corner the government in the remaining days of this session in Parliament which has virtually been a wash out.
