Tamil Nadu govt urged to restore High-Level Committee on Union-State Relations

CHENNAI: The decision to disband the High-Level Committee (HLC) on Union-State Relations was a retrograde step, said a collective of former civil servants belonging to the All India Services and the Central Services, urging Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to restore the panel to continue its work.

The open letter by the collective called Constitutional Conduct Group (CC Group) was signed by 72 retired civil servants, including several noted officers who had served in different State cadres.

In the letter, the CC Group recalled that the first part of the committee's report had received wide appreciation from various sections, including even from Union government ministers.

Terming the decision to discontinue the committee a retrograde step, the group expressed concern over the transfer of responsibility for preparing the second part of the report from the HLC to the State Law Commission, a decision that came six months before the deadline for its submission.

Referring to earlier committees constituted to examine Centre-State relations, the CC Group said the Tamil Nadu government had set up the Rajamannar Committee, while the Union government had constituted the Sarkaria and Punchhi Commissions through executive orders. It also pointed out that the Law Commission was not a statutory body but an executive body.

"There is no evidence on record that the State Law Commission has, in the last 30 years of its existence, examined issues relating to Union-State relations. Nor are any of its past reports available on the government's website or elsewhere for study and evaluation," the letter pointed out.

The group also expressed concern that the decision could be linked to the government's reluctance to displease the Union government and the ruling party at the Centre.

It further objected to the removal of PDF copies of the bilingual versions of Part one of the committee's report from the government's website. The removal appeared to indicate that the present government wanted to disown the report commissioned by its predecessor and distance itself from its findings.

Urging Chief Minister Vijay to reconsider the decision, the CC Group said restoring the original mandate would enable the committee to complete its work and submit Part Two of the report.