Telangana Again Skips South States' FMs' Meet

The second conclave of the finance ministers of the southern states (though it is now called an all-India finance ministers' conclave) began at Amaravathi, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, amid the conspicuous absence of Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Odisha, on Monday.

Karnataka, which is going for polls this month, was represented by its finance secretary.

Telangana and Tamil Nadu had skipped the first meeting held at Thiruvananthapuram, too. The conclave was expanded to an All-India Finance Ministers' meeting after the first edition, and many other states were invited, but most skipped this meeting.

The conclave will discuss the controversial Terms of Reference (ToR) of the 15th Finance Commission and finalize a memorandum to be submitted to the President of India.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that the Telugu Desam Party's fight on state-centre relations had resulted in the constitution of the Sarkaria Commission. And the 1971 population census was taken as the basis for the devolution of funds following AP's suggestion to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

If the 2011 census were to be considered now, the representation of the South in Parliament would go down drastically as population would be the criterion for delimitation. The ToR would amount to penalizing high-performing and progressive states, he said. Underdeveloped states needed a helping hand, but not at the cost of the progressive states, he opined. Such an approach would lead to "huge heartburn", Naidu claimed.