Jayalalithaa meets Modi with 25-point charter

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday with a 25-point charter of demands.

These include interlinking of rivers, additional power supply and redesigning of Central schemes. She also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and raised several concerns over the implementation of the proposed Goods and Services Tax.

After the 50-minute meeting, Jayalalithaa said the PM was very receptive and promised that everything will be done to meet the needs of Tamil Nadu. The Prime Minister’s Office described the meeting as a courtesy call.

Jayalalithaa said the State had not asked for any special funds from the Centre but demanded that the process of the formation of supervisory committee for Mullaperiyar dam, as ordered by the Supreme Court, be expedited. “The PM promised that action will be taken on it within a week,” she said.

When asked whether the possibility of the AIADMK supporting the BJP in Rajya Sabha was discussed, she said the NDA Government does not need her party’s support. “BJP won with a majority. They do not need support. We will see about Rajya Sabha when the time comes,” she said.

She added that grants under Centre-sponsored schemes had not reached Tamil Nadu. “We have spent from our budget in anticipation of those funds. I am looking at the settlement of arrears,” she said.

In her memorandum to the PM, the TN Chief Minister demanded that India should sponsor a resolution in the United Nations condemning the “genocide in Sri Lanka” and “to hold to account all those responsible for the genocide.” She urged Modi to take active steps to abrogate the 1974 and 1976 agreements, retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka and restore the fishing rights of fishermen of Tamil Nadu.

Demanding a redesign of Central schemes, she said States are at the whim and fancy of different Ministries at the Centre to receive scheme-based plan assistance. “This is humiliating for the States, which should be treated as equal partners in development,” she told Modi.

She told Jaitley that Tamil Nadu is concerned about the impact the proposed GST will have on the fiscal autonomy of States.

Her memorandum to the Finance Minister suggested an alternative radical approach in which the levy, collection and appropriation of the substitutes for VAT, Central Excise Duty and Service Tax within a State delegated completely to the State machinery, with the Central machinery focusing more on interstate taxation.