New Delhi, May 19 -- K. Hanumanthaiah, then chief minister of Mysore, made two related complaints at the third meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) in November 1954.

First, that India's states were finding it difficult to find resources to match their share of expenditure on schemes sponsored by the Centre. Second, the Centre was issuing directives without consulting them. The minutes recorded his protest. Nothing else came of it.

Two years later, Madhya Pradesh said the same thing in different words-that it had no money beyond the plan to match Central assistance. In 1967, an NDC subcommittee was set-up to examine the matter. The complaints have a long memory; the responses, a shorter one.

The idea of centrally sponsored ...