Opposition CMs reject ARC recommendations outright

Opposition Chief Ministers today rejected outright recommendations on police reforms by the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) saying they "seriously infringe" upon the states' powers.
Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu (J Jayalalithaa), Bihar (Nitish Kumar), Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) and Tripura (Manik Sarkar) also accused the Centre of committing "excessive interference" in their domestic affairs.
Except Sarkar, speeches of the three others were delivered in absentia at the Chief Ministers' conference on ARC's 5th report 'Public order: justice for each...Peace for all' held here.
Jayalalithaa said many of the recommendations of the ARC relating to public order have become outdated and impractical and, most importantly, many of the suggestions seriously infringe upon the powers of the state executive and the state legislature.

"I wish to once again underscore the fact that public order is a state subject under the Constitution and that the recommendations of the Commission can at best be guidelines to facilitate better functioning. No attempt should be made to mandate or force the recommendations upon the state governments by the Union government," she said.
The second ARC, headed by Veerappa Moily, had submitted its recommendations to the Centre in June 2007.
In a dig at the Centre, the Bihar Chief Minister said a Constitutional amendment should rather be made if anyone thought of curtailing powers of state governments.