Jayalalithaa attacks Centre

New Delhi, Oct 22: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today (Oct 22) 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."

PTI