Sukhbir accuses Centre of "usurping" states' powers

In a sharp attack, Punjab, which is ruled by Akali Dal in alliance with BJP, today accused the Centre of "usurping" states' powers and indulging in a "constitutional rampage" by quietly shifting subjects from the 'State List' to 'Concurrent List' and then to 'Union List'.
Speaking at 11th Inter State Council meeting here today, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said states were being reduced to "mere beggars" as their rights and authority were being "usurped" by the Centre in violation of the spirit of Constitution.
Badal, who heads the Shiromani Akali Dal - an NDA ally, said there was a widespread consensus that the trend towards centralization of authority was continuing, as he stressed on the need for a "genuine" federal structure in India with devolution of more powers to states.

He suggested that the post of Governor should not be kept vacant for more than a month at a time.
"The most dangerous exhibition of this tendency is seen in how the Centre has been quietly shifting subjects from the 'State List' to the 'Concurrent List' and from the Concurrent to the 'Union List' which amounts to constitutional rampage", he said.
Badal suggested that for matters in 'concurrent lists', due weightage should be given to opinion of state government and on 'central list' matters, consultation with affected should be carried out.

He emphasised that states should be given much greater operational freedom to choose and finance development priorities of their people.

Shedding light on the crucial river waters issue, he said Punjab had already suffered gross injustice in the matter of allocation of Ravi-Beas waters as the purposes of Beas Project were not kept in view while deciding the allocations.
He argued that had the purpose of Beas Project been kept in view the entitlement of Haryana would not be more than 0.90 MAF.
He said there has been tremendous decline in the ground water level in Punjab which was a direct consequence of inter-basin transfer of water to non-riparian states.
He said Punjab is of the firm opinion that if allocations are made on the basis of environmental impact and accepted water laws, SYL canal would not be required, as not even a drop of water is spare with Punjab to run the SYL canal.

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Citing another glaring example of injustice with Punjab in the meeting, Badal said while reorganising Punjab not only large Punjabi speaking area was given to Haryana, but also its capital city was not made part of the state.
He said Punjab would be the only state in the world whose capital city is not part of the state.
"We have been consistently demanding the inclusion of Chandigarh and other Punjabi speaking areas in Punjab which have been kept out of the State. The injustice does not end here, even the decision of maintaining of 60:40 ratio in posting of officers to Chandigarh from Punjab and Haryana is being violated continuously," he said.

Badal emphasized that till Chandigarh is transferred to Punjab, at least the sanctity of already decided ratio should be maintained in all departments/categories of employees.
He said the Punjab has waged a national war against cross border smuggling of drugs, it being a border state coming in the drug cartel route, roughly 60 per cent of all illicit drugs confiscated in India are seized in Punjab, highest number of arrests, in the country, of the drug peddlers have been made by the Punjab Police leading to highest conviction rate of more than 81 per cent in drug related cases.
"However the state which is fighting the nation's war on drugs is being termed as state of drug addicts by some for their personal interests", he said.

Badal demanded that the formula and yardstick adopted for allocation of share in Central funds collected from a state be recast in a manner that encourages growth, development, performance and efficiency. He emphasised that Punjab needs special assistance for diversification of crops since the existing pattern has reached stagnation.
Badal pleaded that deployment of BSF in border districts should be brought on par with the deployment of the force in J&K sector at least till state assembly elections scheduled for February-March 2017.