Congress MP Shashi Tharoor disapproved of the current system of the Central government punishing the performing states and rewarding non-performing ones.
Taking part in a panel discussion at Dakshin Dialogues 2022, organised in Hyderabad on Saturday, 17 September on the occasion of the launch of South First, he said that the education and health sectors were doing well in Kerala, but these were the sectors that did not get any help from the Centre.
He said the practice of the South subsidising the North had been going on for a long time.
Around 72 percent of what Karnataka’s spends are met by its own resources, but in Bihar, the share of its own resources is a mere 23 percent, with the remaining borne by the Centre, he pointed out.
That the states which performed well got short shrift was an issue of federalism, said the Lok Sabha member from Kerala during the panel discussion.
Though there should not be any objection to incentivising a state whose population growth was high and whose growth was slack, the way it was being done gave the impression that the South, which performs better, was being asked to pay for those who were laggards, he opined.
