AGARTALA / NEW DELHI, July 16 (TIWN): Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the bold initiative to hold Inter-State Council (ISC) meeting after 10 years gap as previous Congress Govt (CPI-M supported UPA) failed to push national priorities across States. Prime Minister while inaugurating the Inter-State Council (ISC) meeting taking place after a hiatus of 10 years, on Saturday said the nation can only progress if the Centre and state governments work together shoulder to shoulder. Saturday’s important ISC meeting was mainly called to improve Centre-State relations, guiding all non-performer States Chief Ministers of Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, West Bengal, UP, Bihar to follow Central Govt guidelines to improve education, employment, healthcare quality in their respective states. Manik Sarkar led Tripura’s CPI-M Govt continued deprivation of Govt employees, common people since 23 years as most of the Central Funds are looted, diverted by the well-organized corruption rings in administration.

Modi lectured these Chief Ministers the importance of education, improving rural livelihood, even though Tripura CM yet to explain the massive embezzlements of thousands of crores in MGNREGA, NHM, RMSA  schemes.

Modi said the ISC meeting is a place to discuss making and regularising policy.

PM  said discussions with state chief ministers and others will help in building strong Centre-state relations and ensure a bright future for the country.

The meeting being held for the first time after 2006 will discuss the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on harmonising Centre-state relations, debate the use of the Aadhaar card as an identifier, the use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for subsidies and also internal security issues.

The last and tenth meeting of the ISC was held on December 9, 2006, in New Delhi. 

PM Modi said" The nation can progress only if the Union and State Governments walk shoulder to shoulder. It would be difficult for any Government to successfully implement a scheme on its own. Therefore, provision of adequate financial resources is as important as the responsibility for implementation.

In Tripura's case, even after High court orders to clear 31% DA to the state government employees, Tripura government once again on July 14 in the cabinet meeting deprived its employees by giving only mere 4% DA.

It is to be mentioned here that Tripura High Court has ordered the State Govt. to pay 31 % DA unless the govt. here doesn’t take any proper DA system and Pay Commissions implement.

Tripura High Court Judge Subhashish Talapatra in a divisional bench announced  that Court has ordered to give the 31 % DA since 1/1/2009 to 27/8/2011, in 3 instalments.

So Manik Sarkar was forced to pay the the first instalment of DA by increasing 4 per cent DA for the pensioners.

But state government employees the difference between the state and central employees still remained at 42 per cent.

Modi also said "India’s greatest asset is its youth. More than 30 crore children are currently of school-going age. Hence, our country has the potential to provide the world with skilled manpower for many years to come. The Centre and the States must work together to provide our children an enabling environment in which they can develop their skills and prepare themselves for today’s needs."

In Tripura, Manik Sarkar Govt's Education, Social Welfare Departments are supplying insect filled mid-day meals to poor children in rural areas due to mass looting Central funds from Mid-Day meal scheme.

Prime Minister also said "In the words of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay: “Education is an investment. While planting trees, we do not charge them any fee.” We are aware that these trees will give us oxygen in the future, and benefit the environment. Likewise, education is also an investment that benefits the society."

However in Tripura, CPI-M convereted education as breeding ground for upcoming cummunist leaders.

"With the acceptance of the 14th Finance Commission recommendations, the States’ share in central taxes has increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. This means that States now have greater financial resources to utilize in accordance with their requirements. I am happy to share that the total amount received by States from the Centre during 2015-16 is 21 per cent higher than the amount received in 2014-15. Similarly, Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies will receive 2.87 lakh crore rupees during the period of the 14th Finance Commission, which is substantially higher than last time."

Tripura's communist Chief Minister was listening to Modi's speech or sleeping in ISC meeting today ? Tripura yet to implement any recomendations of earlier Finance or Pay commissions.