2. What are the provisions of Inter State Council as mentioned in the Constitution. Have such Councils been helpful in maintaining the solidarity among the States?

Answer:

The Inter-State Council was established under Article 263 of the Constitution of India through a Presidential Order. The Council is a recommendatory body with the following duties:

a) Investigating and discussing such subjects, in which some or all of the States or the Union and one or more of the States have a common interest, as may be brought up before it;

b) Making recommendations upon any such subject and in particular recommendations for the better coordination of policy and action with respect to that subject; and

c) Deliberating upon such other matters of general interest to the States as may be referred by the Chairman to the Council.

The president's power to establish an Inter-state Council can be used both for advising upon disputes as well as to investigate and discuss subjects of common interest.

The Tenth Meeting of the Inter-State Council held in2006 discussed the atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and status of implementation of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In the ten meetings of the Inter-State Council held so far, the Council has taken final view on all the 247 recommendations made by Sarkaria Commission on center-state relations.

It is worth noting that the Punchi Commission recommended that Inter State Councils should have expert advisory bodies/ technical and management experts and should be given more autonomy and sufficient resources which is requried for functioning as constitutional body independent of Centre and State.

The Council has been helpful but only to a limited extent. For greater cooperation among the States a stronger political will is required from the Centre. Recent cases of Inter State or Centre State disputes like Mullaperiyar or over Lokayukta appointment in Gujarat show that we have a long way to go in inter state comity.