Naidu defies PM's whip to stall meet

Naidu defies PM's whip to stall meet
PTI & ENS

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, AUG 20: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has decided to go ahead with Monday's meeting of Chief Ministers of States aggrieved by the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission despite Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's plea not to make their grievances public.

In the run-up to the meeting, Finance Secretaries of 13 states, including BJP-ruled Gujarat, met today at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan to draft a memorandum which their Chief Ministers would present to the Prime Minister.

The States are opposed to the Finance Commission's recommendation putting a ceiling of 37.5 per cent transfer of total Central revenue to the States which they feel will go against their interest, especially those States doing well on national parameters.

Though a key ally of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre, the TDP is said to be peeved over the Centre's decision to accept the Finance Commission's recommendations without any consultation with the States.

Naidu told reporters in Hyderabad that he told the Prime Minister on Saturday that their opposition to the Finance Commission's recommendations were "not a political issue but economic. The country should also know about it".

He said he was concentrating on some Chief Ministers including those from the South, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.

Though Chief Ministers of 17 States have been invited for tomorrow's meeting, Naidu said "majority are coming".

Naidu said he would meet Vajpayee and Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha tomorrow seeking "justice" to those states affected by the EFC recommendations.

Asked about reports that the Prime Minister had disfavoured the holding of such a meeting of Chief Ministers, Naidu said he had explained to Vajpayee that the meeting had nothing to do with politics but has only an economic agenda.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh reaffirmed his faith in Naidu and said they would meet the Prime Minister on Monday to protest the recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission.

``There is absolutely no change in the programme and we will meet the Prime Minister under the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu, who has taken the lead in pressurising the Centre to reject the recommendations,'' Deshmukh told The Indian Express.

He added that the Chief Ministers of the aggrieved states will meet at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi, to draft a memorandum and then proceed to the Prime Minister's office. Deshmukh denied that Naidu is unlikely to accept the leadership of the affected states, saying that Naidu today himself confirmed the programme of meeting the PM.

Deshmukh also said that if the report was implemented in toto, then developed states like Maharashtra would be the biggest losers. In the next five years the Central grant for Maharashtra will be reduced by Rs 7,000 crore, while Andhra Pradesh will lose at least Rs 2,500 crore, he alleged.

Significantly, the BJP had said its Chief Ministers would not be attending tomorrow's meeting, Gujarat Finance Secretary was present at the preparatory official meeting today. It remains to be seen whether its Chief Minister would be present tomorrow.

The Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are not likely to attend the exercise as they are preoccupied with the Rajkumar hostage crisis and would be deputing senior ministers on their behalf.

Today's meeting was attended by Principal and Finance Secretaries from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland.

Finance Secretaries of Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Tripura did not attend today's meeting in spite of being invited.