Modi rejects allegations over 15th Fince Commission

Cheni, April 12: Prime Minister rendra Modi on Thursday rejected the allegations of southern states, including Tamil du, that the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Fince Commission were biased against them and said it would benefit states that took population control measures.

“An issue that has been raised by certain vested interests over the last few days... Baseless allegations are being made about the ToR of the 15th Fince Commission being biased to the states of a particular region,” he said after iugurating a building of the Cancer Institute (WIA) here.

“Let me tell you our critics seem to have missed something. The Union government has suggested to the Fince Commission to consider incentivizing states who have worked on population control. By this yardstick, states like Tamil du, which has devoted a lot of efforts, energy and resources towards population control, would certainly benefit.” He said it was not the case earlier. Southern states have been complaining about the ToR of the Fince Commission saying their interests would be harmed in the matters of resource allocation because of their better performance on population control and economic growth.

The issues was first raised by Kartaka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, which was followed by BJP’s ally-turned-foe Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu idu.  On Tuesday, Kerala Fince Minister Thomas Issaac convened a meeting of southern Fince Ministers which was attended by representatives from Kartaka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, in which they called the ToR a “threat to federalism”. (IANS)