State to oppose Terms of Reference of finance panel

During the meeting, the state has decided to point out the disadvantages the ToR can bring to the state and draft them into a petition. The petition will also seek to amend the ToR in such a way that it doesn’t affect the apportionment of funds to the state. 

Further, the meeting also resolved to make the state’s stand on the Finance Commission be heard in Parliament during debates. The same would be reiterated firmly to the Finance Commission when it visits the state.

“The decision to use the 2011 census to capture the demographic details and to use the same to assess the needs of the states would adversely affect the state as it had been effectively implementing population control programmes in the past 40 years. The Commission should use the 1971 census instead,” a state government release said.

Palaniswami had already written to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Finance Commission expressing the same views. 

Pursuant to the letter, the MPs from Tamil Nadu, on the advice of the CM, had conveyed the state’s views to the Commission. 

Palaniswami chaired the meeting on a day when Kerala held a conference of Finance Ministers from the south to discuss the issues pertaining to southern states which stand to lose much.

The opposition parties, including the DMK, had already condemned the shift and had been insisting that the recommendations should be based on the 1971 census data. 

They had reasoned that factoring in population as an important criterion would only penalise Tamil Nadu for its progress in population control measures and socio-economic initiatives, among others.