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After eight years, opportunity missed

The recent Pondicherry conclave of southern Chief Ministers had nothing tangible to show by way of result, beyond the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's formal announcement of a Rs.500-crore coastal policing scheme. A regrettable aspect of the meeting is that the Chief Ministers of three major States — Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh — did not participate, for whatever reason; these States were however represented at a lower level. One reason why zonal councils, an invaluable device for inter-State and State-Centre coordination in a federal setup, have proved ineffective is that those at the helm did not take them seriously. The result: they met infrequently and, on the occasions they did meet, the deliberations got devalued because of non-participation by Chief Ministers or were reduced to mere speech making, with each participant State reiterating its known position on a contentious issue or coming up with a litany of complaints or demands. Sadly, the Pondicherry meet, which came after a gap of eight years, was another opportunity wasted.

Internal security, a priority item on the agenda at the Chief Ministers' meeting, is an issue of grave concern for the southern region. Aside from the threat perception related to the activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), several factors contribute to the southern and eastern coasts remaining quite porous, dotted as they are with convenient points for smuggling in and out of the country. Given the extended Exclusive Economic Zone, the concept of coastal policing acquires added significance. On tackling the naxalite problem, another area of shared concern from the standpoint of internal security, no substantive or in-depth discussion at the policy level appears to have taken place. While Andhra Pradesh was represented by Finance Minister K. Rosaiah, neighbouring Karnataka, which is complaining of extremist intrusion from across the State border, had deputed only a team of officials. Surely, the complexities of countering the threat of extremist groups call for close interaction at the highest policy making levels of the State Governments concerned, with the Centre playing a supportive role. Not just in fighting extremism or putting down crime with inter-State links, even in critical areas of development — agriculture, irrigation, power, tourism, health, education, infrastructure, et al — the States can achieve a lot more through collective and coordinated planning and action.

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