Badal blames UPA for 'straining' Centre-state relations

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today stepped up his attack on the Centre over "not getting" invite to the foundation laying ceremony of a cancer hospital in Sangrur, even as Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad refuted the charge and said he was invited to the ceremony.
Badal said,"the hostile attitude of the Congress-led UPA government towards the states ruled by opposition parties was straining the Centre-states relations in the country."
In the presence of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, the Union Health Minister today laid the foundation stone of the super-speciality hospital - a satellite centre of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh in Ghabdan village of Sangrur district.

The veteran Akali leader categorically said that the national Congress leadership was "eroding the federal system of the nation by deliberately ignoring the elected governments of states during the inauguration of developmental projects".
He was here to attend a 'Sangat Darshan' programme in the Gidderbaha Assembly segment.
The Chief Minister said that whether it was Uttar Pradesh or Punjab, the Congress leaders had "deliberately ignored" the ruling political leadership of the states in the functions of the Union government just to take political mileage of these projects.

"The manner in which Union government has humiliated us by ignoring the state government in this regard, was unconstitutional and derogatory," Badal said.

Meanwhile, at Sangrur, Azad refuted the charge. "It was an issue concerning the health of the people. We don't discriminate on party basis."
The Union minister said that six days back, he had asked the PGIMER Director Dr Y K Chawla to send a formal invitation to Badal.