Badal asks Centre to function in tandem with states

Fatehgarh Sahib, Dec 25 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Centre to function in tandem with the states, so as to ensure overall development of the country.

''The Centre cannot achieve the targeted growth rate unless it takes along all the states, who are equal partners in the process of national economic development'', he said while addressing a political conference on the occasion of the martyrdom day of Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh, sons of Guru Gobind Singh here.

He said that the Centre could not throttle the states and deprive them of their justified rights. States like Punjab which contribute 60 per cent foodgrains in the national pool could not be ignored on the issues related to farmers, he said.

Claiming that the increase in the MSP of wheat by Rs 250 per quintal was an outcome of the persistent efforts of the SAD-BJP government, he reiterated that the SAD-BJP government was pro-farmer and would always fight for their cause to ensure justice to them.

Blaming the Congress for the 1984 riots, Mr Badal said that no one could forget this inhuman incident which exposed the much hyped 'secular image' of the Congress. ''None can suppress the indomitable spirit of the Sikhs as this community had been blessed with unique quality of valour and courage by our great Gurus'', he added.

Coming down heavily on the previous Congress Government, he said that the state had been pushed into a debt trap of Rs 50,000 crore due to the wrong economic and financial policies, and that his government was committed to revive the state's derailed economy.

The Chief Minister said that SGPC would start construction work of Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University to be established in this historic town within the next three to four months to impart hi-tech quality education. He pointed out that Punjab had already taken the matter with the Ministry of Human Resources to set up a Central University in Punjab to impart quality higher education.

Earlier, the Chief Minister paid obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum of Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib alongwith President SGPC Avtar Singh Makkar was honoured with a siropa.

UNI