Following is edited excerpt of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s speech at the 11th meeting of Inter-State Council, held in New Delhi on July 16: I thank the Home Minister for convening the meeting after a very long and unusual gap of time. However, I would like to urge from now on meetings of this very important forum should be organised at least once a year, if not more. This meeting gives all of us a chance to reflect on the state of the nation and ponder over the missed opportunities & disappointments and successes and achievements. It also gives us an opportunity to set right the course of direction to the nation for future. The Punchhi Commission had made several important recommendations governing centre-states relations. The government of Tripura has considered the recommendations and sent the comments on each of them for consideration long back. The government of Tripura supports the proposal to refer the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission first to the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council. India is a federal country. Presently, the government is talking of cooperative federalism. However, it has been noticed that there is creeping deprivation of powers of the states ignoring the constitutional checks and balances and separation of powers and thereby, denying their constitutional rights. To strengthen India, states should be strengthened. We all have to remember that India cannot be stronger without strong states. It is, therefore, suggested that more powers and authority should be delegated to the states to carry out their responsibilities and obligations effectively. Financial independence and autonomy is the key to strengthen the states. In recent times, many funds are not routed through the State Consolidated Fund but directly through state implementing agencies. This impedes the ability of the states for better budgeting, expenditure and planning. When we are expecting states would be provided more resources and also sources of revenue, delinking of several centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) have adversely impacted development work in states like Tripura. We demand that the government of India should compensate states for loss of delinked schemes and revenue shortfall caused due to recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. Most importantly, we emphatically demand that share of taxes should be distributed between the centre and the states at least in the ratio of 50:50. The country is still facing threats of insurgency, extremism and fundamentalism. All individuals and organisations promoting enmity, hatred, divisions in the society on any manner, should be firmly dealt with and unity, diversity, tolerance and freedom should be strongly protected. While the government of Tripura welcomes sharing of intelligence among the states and the union, law and order being state subject, these arrangements should no way infringe upon the powers of the state, keeping in view the federal spirit and that states share most burden in maintaining peace and tranquility in the country. Many recommendations of the Punchhi Commission on internal security, if accepted, would create imbalance in the federal structure. States can never accept snatching of Constitution-bestowed powers of public order and internal security. The union government is advised to abandon its pursuit of acquiring states’ powers on any pretext. To improve internal security situation and to tackle emerging technology and cyber-based threats, the union government should provide more funds for modernisation of police in real terms. Tripura was once afflicted with large scale insurgency for a long time. But we were able to control insurgency mainly with the active support and involvement of peace-loving, democratic-minded people. Our multi-pronged strategy of effective development, strong counter-insurgency measures and decentralisation system of governance yielded positive results. We have controlled insurgency without violating any human rights of the people and at the same time keeping our doors open for dialogue. A large number of insurgents either surrendered or gave up arms and now are integral part of the mainstream of the society. Today, perhaps, Tripura is one of the most peaceful states in the country with high rates of literacy, excellent human development indicators, and fast developing basic infrastructure and poised to play important role as gateway to the North East Region, to benefit from ‘Act East Policy’. Aadhaar is an important initiative of the government of India for direct transfer of benefits to the targeted beneficiaries and to eliminate waste and fraud. The coverage of Aadhaar in Tripura is as high as 92 per cent and it is used to pay all 28 social pensions, various stipends to students and payment of wages to MGNREGA workers. While the government of Tripura fully supports enabling direct payments to the citizens in the country, however, it should not be made mandatory to receive benefits. Alternative forms of establishing identity should also be equally honored to provide benefits to the citizens. The government of Tripura considers education as the birth right of our children. Therefore, it is the responsibility of both the union and the states to provide quality, affordable and accessible education to all the children and adults in the country. The education policies adopted so far could not provide adequate skills as well as lead to employment to the youth of the country. The result is prevalence of large scale unemployment and poor learning outcomes in the states. The education policy should be job-oriented, skills focused and quality emphasised, so that after completion of required educational qualifications, youths are able to get jobs. Tripura has taken several measures to universalise education up to Class X level to cover 99 per cent of target children and necessary measures have been taken to achieve this goal within its limitations. The country has focused, till now, on creating infrastructure and providing access to all the children. I think, at the same time, it would be proper now to focus on learning outcomes and quality. We need to develop a framework that measures the quality of teaching and teachers, conceptual understanding and outcomes of students at regular intervals and quality infrastructure. The process should be embedded in the genuine search for improvement of overall educational system and standards. Many states are still lagging behind in economic development. It is very critical to ensure lagging regions and undeveloped areas are assisted to develop on par with the developing states and regions of the country for equity and fairness. The country can ill-afford to have large areas of deprivation when it aspires to move millions out of poverty. The under-developed and backward regions should be assisted by the union government to accelerate their development, remove poverty and reduce inequalities in the country. Cooperation and coordination with the union government on development issues is very important. Earlier, states had a structured mechanism for discussions and coordination with the union government through the Planning Commission. However, after its abolition and replacement with NITI Aayog, the mechanism for interaction with the union government on developmental issues does not exist. Many states have no financial capacity, expertise or best practices to innovate and take up development projects for faster economic development in the absence of structured mechanism. I urge for evolving a structured mechanism for interaction as well as coordination with the government of India on developmental matters at the earliest.