\"Centre reducing states to glorified municipal corporations\"

New Delhi, October 22, 2011 (PTI)



The Chief Minister, who did not attend the meeting, was dismissive in her speech about meetings like the NDC, saying these were \"more of a ritualistic exercise rather than to achieve any tangible outcome\" and \"exercises in futility\".



In a sharp attack of the UPA government, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday said it was not treating states as partners but has reduced them to "glorified municipal corporations" through attempts to weaken them.



In her address to the National Development Council, Ms. Jayalalithaa alleged that the Central government "seems to have lost direction" and has left the state governments to face the public ire over issues like price rise.



The Chief Minister, who did not attend the meeting, was dismissive in her speech about meetings like the NDC, saying these were "more of a ritualistic exercise rather than to achieve any tangible outcome" and "exercises in futility".



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, Ms. Jayalalithaa said.



"I am not sure that the Government of India recognises the States as partners, leave alone equal partners, and respects their viewpoints. 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 in the speech which was placed before the meeting.



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.


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