Chennai: Coming down hard on the UPA government
at the Centre, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today
charged it with preventing the development of the state and
vowed to "smash" all the hurdles to deliver welfare to the
people of the state.
"It is a matter of regret to say. But the Centre is working
with the intention of not allowing Tamil Nadu to survive,"
Jayalalithaa told the Assembly.
Her remarks come a day after she charged the Centre with
inaction on a resolution by the Assembly seeking economic
santions on Sri Lanka on the ethnic conflict involving the
Tamils, alleging that it had emboldened Sri Lankan Defence
Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse to ridicule the resolution.
He had said that the resolution was passed for political
advantage.
Responding to CPI (M) Floor Leader A Sounderrajan's plea
for more funds for certain programmes, Jayalalithaa said the
Centre had "snatched" from states most of the
revenue-generating portfolios and retained them with itself
and left Value Added Tax and Commercial Taxes for states to
meet their revenue.
"State government's revenue is realised only from these.
And we are managing all our expenses using these. We have the
intention to do but financial deficit has tied us down," she
said.
She assured that her government was committed in
implementing welfare measures and said that all the "hurdles
created by the Centre will be smashed."
"I would assure that we will fulfill our democratic duty in
democratic ways," she said.
Earlier, she had slammed the Congress-led UPA when she said
that the Centre had cut down state's quota of kerosene since
June and recalled that she had taken this up with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh.
PTI
First Published: Friday, August 12, 2011, 12:04