Don’t deprive States of resources: Mamata

States should not be deprived of the “rightful resources” that they deserve from the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, objecting to the use of the 2011 census figures for devolution of funds by the 15th Finance Commission instead of the 1971 census as used by all the previous commissions.

Ms. Banerjee joins the chorus against the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission which many have called an assault on the federal structure of the country. The southern states have been protesting saying the terms are inherently biased against the progressive States that have controlled population. The Kerala government hosted the first meeting of State Finance Ministers on April 10.

Second meeting

On Monday, a second round of meeting was hosted by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in Amravati. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra too attended the conference.

Ms. Banerjee in her letter dated April 20, has said that the terms were fixed without consulting the States, which is against the “the spirit of federal structure of the nation”.

“The overall approach to use the 1971 population census of all the earlier Finance Commissions was based on a very sound and rational footing. It incentivised those States which have effectively implemented socio-economic programmes and family welfare programmes,” she said.

She said that the State stands to lose ₹22,000 crore to ₹35,000 crore from 2020-2025 only due to the use of the 2011 census population.

“We strongly urge the Central government to immediately modify the TOR of the 15th Finance Commission,” she said.