TN presses for autonomy in higher education

Updated on: Friday, March 19, 2010

Chennai: TN Govt urged the Centre to drop its proposed move to centralise all the powers relating to higher education by establishing a unitary body of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research.

Presenting the State Budget for the year 2010-11, Finance Minister K Anbazhagan said the State had been consistently urging the Centre to give due rights to the States and refrain from enacting laws that take away the powers of State Governments in respect of subjects in the Concurrent List like Teacher Training and Higher Education.

''We request the Centre to drop the proposed move to centralise all the powers relating to higher education by establishing a unitary body of the National Commission for Higher Education.'' ''We have clarified that devolution of powers in this manner is only one aspect of state autonomy, but that in itself cannot be equated with state autonomy. Having regard to the fact that different states in our country are at different stages of development with varied needs and special circumstances, we request the Union Government to formulate schemes after consultation with the State Governments and provide for flexibility by which the States can modify the schemes according to their needs and suitability'', he added.

Quoting the 13th Finance Commission report and the Action Taken Report tabled in Parliament on February 25 this year, Anbazhagan said the share of the States in the shareable net tax revenue of the Union Government has been increased from 30.5 per cent to 32 per cent.
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''It is a welcome step that the states collectively will now receive a higher share of the tax revenue of the Union Government. At the same time, the inter-se share of Tamil Nadu in the total devolution has been reduced from 5.305 per cent to 4.969 per cent,'' Anbazhagan said.

The shares of the other southern states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have also been reduced. It is a matter of regret that the shares of the southern states which have successfully been implementing many welfare schemes and infrastructure projects have been reduced as if it is a punishment for performance.

TN presses for autonomy in higher education

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