Kerala's local self-government bodies a model for other

The performance of Kerala's local self-government bodies is a model for other states to emulate, N K Singh, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, said today.

Singh was addressing a meeting of officers and elected representatives of local self-governing department here as part of the Commission's three-day visit to the state.

The commission's visit comes amid concerns raised by Kerala that its Terms of Reference were against the state's interest.

There was good coordination between the state government and local self-governing bodies and no serious issues were found, Singh said.

The Commission members-- Shaktikanta Das, Dr Anoop Singh, Dr Ashok Lahiri, Dr Ramesh Chand and Secretary Arvind Mehta--also attended the meeting, a government release said.

T K Jose, Additional Chief Secretary, gave a presentation on the performance, fund utilisation and challenges of local self-government department.

The activities under Haritha Keralam Mission, Kudumbasree Mission, Information Kerala Mission and Suchitwa Mission were elaborated.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor V K Prasanth referred to the issue of anomalies in professional tax system and the need to bring in a legislation by central government to rectify the issues in methods for calculating the professional tax.

Kerala had convened a meeting of Finance Ministers of southern states here on April 10 to arrive at a consensus on their response to the Terms of Reference.

State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac has said these states were being 'penalised' for successfully implementing national policies.