KERALA chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan has requested the prime minister to drop the proposed amendments to the Indian administrative service(IAS) cadre rules. In a letter written to prime minister Narendra Modi, Pinarayi wrote that these amendments would ‘weaken cooperative federalism'.

 He opined that "the present deputation rules are already heavily loaded in favour of the union government and bringing in further changes will weaken the very root of cooperative federalism. Thus the government of Kerala demands that these proposed amendments may be dropped."

The proposed amendments in the deputation rules of all India services will definitely induce a fear psychosis and an attitude of hesitancy among all India service officers to implement policies of a state government, which are formed by party/parties politically opposed to the ruling party at the centre, he said.

"In our federal set up the state governments are at par with the central government as both of them are elected by the people, though the division of authority in the Constitution does give the union jurisdiction over a wider range of subjects. We need to recognise that in a vibrant democratic and federal polity, states and the centre can be ruled by political formations with vastly different ideologies and political views. But these governments function within the framework of the Constitution, " chief minister, Pinarayi said in his letter.