Hyderabad: On January 12, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said it is better if the commission becomes a policy formulating body by favouring a re-look at the role of the Finance Commission.

This statement came as Chandrashekar Rao was speaking at a meeting with officials on Saturday ahead of a likely visit of the 15th Finance Commission to the state.

Speaking to the media, Rao said, "The Finance Commission visits states with pre-occupied notions. They come with pre-occupied ideas like ToR (Terms of Reference) which in fact should be done after they complete their visit, discuss it with the state governments and later take their views."

"It is better if the Finance Commission becomes a policy formulating body. Devolution is the right of the states. There is a lot of diversity concerning states' requirements," he added.

Observing that there is centralisation about the devolution of policy from the Centre, he said it is unfortunate that policy devolution is in a manner of "dishonouring state governments and states' powers."

Claiming there has not been a qualitative change in the country since Independence, he said it was time to introspect.

The party's press release stated that though there have been different governments at the national and state level since independence with various political parties coming to power from time to time, there has not been a qualitative change.

He expressed unhappiness over people’s agitation and disappointment with the policies of governments and also asked finance department officials to prepare a record to be presented to the Commission highlighting Telangana's requirements, the release stated.