A majority of Chief Ministers, including those from Congress-ruled states, today kept away from a conference on police reforms convened by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who promised further steps only with the consent of the states.
Shinde, however, tried to brush aside the suggestion that the conference was being boycotted by many Chief Ministers, saying representatives of 23 state governments, including opposition party Chief Ministers, had attended.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who usually attends the Chief Ministers' conference as a chief guest, also skipped it this time. The day-long conference was convened to discuss the Fifth Report on "Public Order" of 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission(ARC).
At the meeting, opposition Chief Ministers rejected outright the ARC recommendations on police reforms saying they "seriously infringe" upon the states' powers.
The Home Minister tried to allay their apprehensions saying no recommendation of ARC on policing and public order will be implemented without their consent.
"On issues where the Chief Ministers' have objections, we should not go ahead and should move only after the concurrence of the states. I am fully agree with that," he told PTI after the day-long conference.
Non-Congress Chief Ministers like Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), J Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu), Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh) and Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) did not attend the meeting convened for the first time during the tenure of Shinde as Home Minister.
Even Congress Chief Ministers of Maharashtra (Prithviraj Chavan), Andhra Pradesh (N Kiran Kumar Reddy), Rajasthan (Ashok Gehlot), Kerala (Oommen Chandy), Haryana (Bhupinder Singh Hooda), Manipur (O Ibobi Singh) and Himachal Pradesh (Virbhadra Singh) did not participate.
Himachal Pradesh and Manipur Chief Ministers had given their confirmation but did not turn up.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had initially given his consent, but did not attend.
