Directly holding excessive centralization of powers by the successive Congress Governments at the Centre responsible for terrorism in the country, Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today said that weakening of Federal structure was not in the interest of the nation.Talking to the media persons after attending function to mark the first death anniversary of former Chief Parliamentary Secretary and BJP leader Mr. Amarjeet Singh Sahi here today, the Chief Minister said that due to the wrong policies of the Union Government the situation in the country was highly volatile today and the bomb blasts at Hyderabad were a testimony to it. Emphasizing on the need for more powers to the states, Mr. Badal said that it was the need of the hour that the Center and state must be equally powerful so as to combat the problem of terrorism in an effective manner. However, he bemoaned that the due to Union Government’s policy of usurping the powers of the state the law and order situation in the country has been adversely effected.
The Chief Minister said that the net result of all these policies of the Union government was the weakening of federal structure due to which the country was confronting a number of social maladies like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and others which were adversely affecting the performance of the country. Mr. Badal said that the founding fathers of our constitution had enshrined federal structure in the constitution for developing the country but unfortunately the successive Congress governments have turned the country into a unitary state. He said that it was regrettable that polices were being formulated by the Union government in an arbitrary manner by overriding the powers of the state government due to which the lopsided development of country was taking place.
Replying to another query the Chief Minister while reiterating the stand of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on the proposal of setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in the country, said that their party was vehemently opposed to any such idea that was bent upon to infringe the rights of the states. He categorically said that NCTC was designed by the Union government to usurp the powers of the state governments which could not be tolerated at any cost. Mr Badal said that the NCTC was another deliberate move of the Union Government to give a big blow to the Federal structure provided by our Constitution thereby turning the country into a unitary state. He said that union government must hold fresh consultations with the Chief Ministers of states who were the biggest stake holders in the fight against militancy adding that the Centre and the States should jointly re-examine the issues in entirety.
Earlier paying laurel tributes to Mr. Sahi, the Chief Minister said that the sad demise of Mr. Sahi was the most tragic incident of last year. He said that it was an irreparable loss for the SAD-BJP alliance which had lost its energetic leader who was very popular amongst the general masses. He said that Mr. Sahi was committed for the development of the area and now it was his personal duty to fulfill all the dreams of the departed leader.
Reiterating the commitment of state government to ensure all round development of Dasuya, Mr. Badal said that they were duty bound for this adding that no stone would be left unturned for accomplishing this task. The Chief Minister said that as Mr. Sahi had always aspired to provide quality educational facilities to the youth of kandi area so to fulfill his dream a Polytechnic College, C-PYTE Centre and Adarsh School were already being constructed by the state government. He said that in order to further accelerate the pace of development in Dasuya assembly segment he would soon undertake Sangat Darshan programs in the segment after the Budget session of assembly.
Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Cabinet Minister Mr Chunni Lal Bhagat, State BJP President Mr. Kamal Sharma, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Mr. Som Parkash, Mr. GS Babbehali and Mrs Mohinder Kaur Josh, MLAs Mrs Sukhjeet Kaur Sahi and Mr. Ashwani Sharma, Rajya Sabha Member Mr. Avinash Rai Khanna, Former Ministers Mr Tikshan Sud and Mr Arunesh Shakir.