The Commission on centre state relations headed by Justice MM Punchi has asked the Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh governments to come up with a report regarding the requirements of these states so that they could achieve “positive discrimination”.

The members of the commission Dhirendra Singh, V.K.Duggal and Vijay Shankar Tripathi in an interaction with the media in Dehradun on Tuesday night disclosed that deliberations with the Chief Secretaries of the three states were held regarding the schemes and programmes that could be implemented in these hill states.

Dhirendra Singh said, “There is need to preserve the Himalayan ecosystem and the state must have to understand that “positive discrimination” is its right.

There are certain disadvantages in hill states like problem of physical infrastructure, availability of fertile land and natural disasters. Since Uttarakhand caters to the tourists, pilgrims and several other requirements of the other parts of the country, the state in a way maintains heritage, which is not available with other parts of the country. Hence Uttarakhand must be compensated in some form and this could be done under the positive discrimination.”

Duggal said that the Commission aims to come out with its final report by March 2010. he disclosed,” The issue of the much talked about proposed Himalayan Development Authority also came up for discussion during the meeting. We have told the three states to come up with a concrete plan regarding the setting up of the Authority.”