Kerala govt slams Centre over 'conditional' nod to borrow money
Kollam(Kerala) (PTI): The Kerala government has flayed the Centre's stand to allow the state to borrow money only if it withdrew the case before the Supreme Court, terming it "highly disappointing" and detrimental to fiscal federalism.
Addressing media here on Monday, state Finance Minister K N Balagopal claimed that the central government has informed the apex court that if Kerala withdraws its petition, the government will give the state permission to borrow around Rs 12,000 crore on Monday itself.
"The state government has filed the case in the Supreme Court for the fund which is rightfully ours," he said.
"The Union government's stand is highly disappointing and will affect the fiscal federalism of the state and the day-to-day activities of the state government," Balagopal added.
"Our lawyer Kapil Sibal argued for us and said we were seeking the amount that is rightfully ours. We have filed the petition seeking the fund as per our constitutional rights. They have asked us to withdraw our plea and it amounts to injustice," the minister added.
On February 15, a meeting was convened in the national capital following the Supreme Court's suggestion during a hearing of the petition filed by the Kerala government accusing the Centre of interfering in the exercise of its "exclusive, autonomous and plenary powers" to regulate the state's finances by imposing a ceiling on net borrowing.
The top court on Monday asked the Kerala government to "mentally prepare itself" as the court may not be able to give an interim order in its favour on a plea alleging the Centre's interference in the state's finances by imposing a ceiling on net borrowing.
"This is pure financial thicket. How much can a court interfere, that too by an interim order," the bench said, adding, "Mentally prepare yourself (Kerala) that we may not be able to give an interim order. We are not experts on the subject matter."
Sibal said that Kerala's claim is over Rs 24,000 crore and its entitlement is Rs 11,000 crore but they (the Centre) want the state government to first withdraw the suit for consideration of entitlement.
"For borrowing, they are telling us to first withdraw the suit and then they will consider. Are we going to be penalised for filing a suit for our financial rights?" Sibal asked.
The court has now directed the matter to be listed on March 6 and asked both the Kerala and the Union governments to keep the channel of negotiation open to resolve the dispute.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
