NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today attacked the UPA government for "reducing states to glorified municipal corporations" by turning a deaf ear to their reasonable demands and described central proposals like the Communal Violence bill as "fascist".She also questioned the Approach Paper for 12th Plan in her speech tabled in National Development Council here, saying the lack of emphasis in the document on a direct attack on poverty was "reflective of the apathy" of the Centre towards the issue that really concerns the common man.Jayalalithaa "strongly advocated" the need for a more ambitious growth target and set ten per cent growth as the minimum target though she expressed doubt about achieving the goal saying it was not easy to attain.The Chief Minister, who rode to power ousting DMK in the Assembly elections in May this year, said the government has "miserably failed" to arrest price rise and its policies and actions to tackle it were counter productive."I am not sure that the Government of India recognises the States as partners, leave alone equal partners, and respects their viewpoints. These meetings at best are ritualistic and are exercises in futility..." "There are attempts by the Centre to weaken the states with too much interference thereby reducing them to the status of glorified municipal corporations. It is continuously proving that it is completely out of sync with ground realities and far removed from the man on the street," she said.Referring to Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill, GST Bill, Common Entrance Test for professional courses, she said, "Several measures proposed by the Central Government in recent months are all fascist and anti-democratic in nature." Meetings like these only cause frustration to states and people when the Centre turns a deaf ear even to reasonable requests like restoration of kerosene quota to mitigate the sufferings of the poor, or additional power to tide over a crisis situation, Jayalalithaa said."In the final arithmetic, the Government of India seems to have lost direction and it is left to the State Governments to face public ire. I sincerely hope that this hopeless situation will change for the better in times to come and we should be able to discharge our duties and responsibilities towards the poor and the people at large," she said.The Chief Minister said she would like to place on record her strong feeling that the NNDC meeting is being convened "more as a ritualistic exercise rather than to achieve any tangible outcome"."The Central government seems to be hell-bent on penalising 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 is in power," she said.Despite repeated requests for special assistance, she said funds are not provided to Tamil Nadu while a special package has been given to West Bengal for the only reason that the present ruling party in West Bengal is an ally of the ruling party at the Centre. "This only indicates that step motherly treatment is given to non-Congress governments." On the Communal Violence Bill, she said it was only a "blatant attempt to totally bypass" the state governments and concentrate all powers in the Centre, thereby rendering the states absolutely powerless and totally at the mercy of the Centre.
Comments
0 comment