The Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council (ISC) headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday completed deliberations on all 273 recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on Centre-State relations, after discussing the sixth and seventh volumes of the Commission’s report.
The Centre constituted a Commission on Centre-State Relations under the chairmanship of Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, former Chief Justice of India, on 27 April 2007, to look into the new issues of Centre-State relations, after the Sarkaria Commission had last examined them over two decades ago. The Punchhi Commission submitted its seven-volume report in 2010.
The Standing Committee will now place its recommendations on the Commission’s report before the Inter-State Council for a final view. The two volumes of the report considered on Friday contained 88 recommendations.
The sixth volume of the Commission’s report contained recommendations related to Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure and covered subjects like water, forests and minerals.
The recommendations in the seventh volume related to socio-economic development, Public Policy and Good Governance and subjects like Constitutional Governance and Public Administration; Socio-political Developments and its Impact on Governance; and Basic Needs of People, Directive Principles and State Accountability.
The Home Minister said during the previous two meetings of the Standing Committee last year, thorough deliberations were held on the recommendations contained in Volumes II to V of the Punchhi Commission’s Report.
The Punchhi Commission has in its report, touched, among other subjects, Centre-State Financial Relations and Planning; Local Self-Governments and Decentralised Governance; Internal Security, Criminal Justice and Centre-State Cooperation. The ISC meeting in 2016 was held after a gap of 10 years and its Standing Committee and Zonal Councils met regularly after that.