Soon, incentives for states exercising populace control

Chennai, Apr 12 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stated that the Finance Commission has been directed to consider boosting the states undertaking measures to implement population control.

This comes after concerns were raised by the Finance Ministers of Southern Indian states with respect to the 15th Finance Commission's Terms of Reference (ToR) not boosting states that have held populace growth under wraps.

Reacting to the same, Prime Minister Modi said the allegations of the Centre being one-sided against specific states or a specific locale were 'ridiculous'.

"The Union Government has proposed to the Finance Commission to consider incentivising states who have taken a shot at populace control. Consequently, a state like Tamil Nadu, which has dedicated a great deal of exertion, vitality and assets towards populace control would absolutely profit," he said at the inaugural capacity of the Diamond Jubilee working of a Cancer Institute here.

On Tuesday, the Finance Ministers of three southern Indian states and one Union Territory featured provisos in the Terms of Reference endorsed by the fifteenth Finance Commission for allocation of funds to states.

At a conference of Finance Ministers of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, the priests contended that with the present rules set up, states with higher populace would be qualified for a bigger offer of duty assets, while those that embraced measures for populace control would bring about misfortunes.

They also requested an expansion in energy to state governments, as they were essentially in charge of undertaking formative exercises.