Reaffirm cooperative federalism-THE HINDU-13-05-2020

Details:

Fissures in cooperation:

‘National Plan’ under Section 11, as well as issuance of binding guidelines by the Centre to States under Section 6, in furtherance of the ‘National Plan’. The ‘National Plan’ then is a broader vision document while the binding guidelines are its enforcement mechanism. Now, Section 11 of the Act mandates State consultations before formulating a ‘National Plan’, and to that extent, when the binding guidelines are ultimately issued under it, they are expected to represent the views of the States. However, the Centre has not formulated the ‘National Plan’, and has chosen instead to respond to COVID-19 through ad hoc binding guidelines issued to States, thereby circumventing the legislative mandate of State consultations.

In fact, the Home Ministry order ushering in lockdown 3.0 prohibited States from lowering the Centre’s classifications.