UPA penalising non-Congress states: Jayalalithaa
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa Saturday hit out at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government accusing it of penalizing non-Congress-ruled states and said people living in those states were as much citizens of India as those in Congress-ruled states.
"The central government seems to be hell-bent on penalizing non-Congress governments. This government at the centre does not seem to understand that the people living in the states under non-congress governments are as much citizens of India as those in the states where the Congress party is in power,” Jayalalithaa said at the 56th National Development Council (NDC) meeting held here. "I am not sure that the government of India recognizes the states as partners, leave alone equal partners," she said. “No response” is the customary response of the centre to all requests made by Tamil Nadu, she said.
Jayalalithaa charged the centre with reducing these states to the level of "glorified municipal corporations".
Funds for the central government's various social programmes should be routed through the state government instead of giving them directly to the implementation agencies, she said. “I am afraid that no useful purpose is going to be served by convening this National Development Council Meeting,” Jayalalithaa said.
Several measures proposed by the UPA like the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 are "fascist and anti-democratic in nature”, Jayalalithaa said.
“Even attacks on fishermen belonging to Tamil Nadu in the Palk Bay by Sri Lanka are not looked upon as acts of aggression against India. This issue is merely looked upon as a minor problem concerning Tamil Nadu alone,” Jayalalithaa charged. Jayalalithaa called for introspection on the failures to achieve the 11th plan targets before embarking on to the 12th one.
She said firm macro-economic management has to be combined with adroit and innovative strategies to ensure that the trend reaches its logical conclusion.
Posted by Ak Reddy
on 06:56.
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