Jalandhar: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday asked the Union government to make concerted efforts for a political consensus at the national level for eradication of social maladies like poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the country.
Describing these social ills as the root cause of terrorism, the Chief Minister said it was the bounden duty of the Union government to remove these maladies to combat the scourge.
Advocating constitution of a national level forum for discussing such key issues, Badal said at present the state governments hardly have any forum to raise matters related to public interest before the Union government.
"As a result of this on one hand heavy concentration of powers was taking place in the hands of Central government and on the other hand due to communication gap between the Union and state governments the welfare of general public was being adversely affected," Badal said addressing the gathering at `Shaheed Parivar Fund` function organized by the Hind Samachar Newspaper Group here.
Badal further said that with the constitution of such national level forum all the political parties would be able to contribute towards ensuring peace and communal harmony in the country thus paving the way for its all round development.
Reiterating that the grants given by the Union government must be disbursed in proportion to the share of taxes collected from the state, Badal said that it would provide the required fillip for the development of the states.
He also said that the Centre must formulate the policies at national level keeping in view the diversities in the states so that uniform development could be ensured in them.
The Chief Minister also demanded that the Union government must take adequate steps for effectively checking the smuggling of drugs into the states from across the border.
PTI
