New Delhi, March 29: The Centre?s move to clean up governance has cleared the first hurdle.

The standing committee of the Inter-State Council today gave the go-ahead to a blueprint for good governance that among other measures suggests state funding of elections and seeks to ban criminals from the poll fray.

Union home minister Shivraj Patil said the committee had ?by and large? approved the action plan, which would be put up at the council?s next meeting where all states would be represented.

Patil said there were broad discussions on the draft, including on those relating to electoral reforms. Though he acknowledged there was no specific discussion on keeping criminals out of the fray, none of the chief ministers is learnt to have opposed the idea at this stage.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh where criminalisation of politics is considered a serious issue, also gave his ?in-principle? approval to measures for decriminalising politics as well as state funding of elections.

Officials suggested this was expected but said the protests would get louder and clearer only when discussions are held on who qualifies to be dubbed a criminal even before a court has found him guilty.

Sources said the proposal for state funding of elections is expected to run into a roadblock. In his address, Mulayam Singh made it clear he did not believe that states had the financial resources to fund political parties and would certainly need assistance from the central government.

Other chief ministers did not make this point but those present at the meeting suggested it was clear that this demand would catch up with the states. And fast. ?This can be a serious stumbling block,? an official said.

The home ministry is likely to forward this demand to the finance ministry to seek its comments on the possibility of the central government agreeing to take on this financial commitment. ?We will need a lot of money for funding,? Patil said.

One suggestion, from Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, that Patil was unwilling to take too seriously was a periodic review of laws.

Patil said the council secretariat ? which drafted the action plan after consulting the states ? would consider changes recommended by the chief ministers and incorporate suggestions that the Centre accepts before putting it up at the meeting.

He said no date has been fixed for the meeting but announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair a meeting of chief ministers on national security.

Patil emphasised during the deliberations that good governance was linked to internal security.

In this context, the home minister said he was confident about tackling Naxalite violence effectively, largely because people who want peace ?outnumber? those who have taken up arms.