December 27, 2012
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa created a flutter when she walked out of the National Development Council (NDC) meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday morning, protesting the "shabby treatment" meted out to her by the Centre in "stifling the voices of chief ministers".
December 27, 2012
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa created a flutter when she walked out of the National Development Council (NDC) meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday morning, protesting the "shabby treatment" meted out to her by the Centre in "stifling the voices of chief ministers".
Jaya walks out of NDC meet, accuses Centre of stifling voices of CMs
"At the NDC meeting, the voices of the CMs have been stifled. Chief ministers were not allowed to speak freely. At the very beginning we were told that only ten minutes would be allotted to each CM and that after ten minutes the bell would ring. This is unheard of," she told reporters soon after she walked out of the meeting in a huff.
Stating that this has never been the practice before, she said, "I attended many such conferences in the past. I have attended meetings of the NDC and conferences of CMs convened by the Prime Minister on many occasions. Such practices have never been adopted before," Jayalalithaa said.
She said she had barely begun her speech when she was told that her ten minutes were up and the bell rang. "This is utter humiliation of a chief minister, who has come all the way to Delhi to present the views of the state government in the interest of the welfare of the people," she said.
Jayalalithaa alleged that there have been many occasions before when other chief ministers who support the Central Government have been allowed to speak for 30 minutes, 35 minutes and even more sometimes.
"At the last conference that I attended, the Assam chief minister was allowed to speak for more than 35 minutes", she said.
Claiming that it is impossible to convey the views of the state government in such a short period as ten minutes, she said, "We were all asked to come to Delhi to discuss the 12th plan document, which itself is so lengthy and encompasses so many subjects. It is practically impossible to convey everything that a CM wants to say within a short time frame of ten minute." If this is the way that they are going to treat chief ministers, the centre can stop calling such conferences and stop inviting the chief ministers, she said, adding, "we have got enough work back home."
Courtesy: TOI
