Amritsar, Jan 26: Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal today alleged the policy of successive Congress governments' at the Centre had undermined the federal structure of India's constitution by usurping powers of states.
 Addressing a gathering here after unfurling the national flag on the Republic day, he said framers of the constitution had envisaged a federal structure in the country for ensuring the well-being of all sections of society but "the policy of the successive Congress governments at the Centre to usurp the powers of the states has today turned India into a unitary state".
 "Our great freedom fighters and patriots had laid down their lives during freedom struggle for ensuring the welfare of countrymen but it was unfortunate that the unitary structure of governance in country has given birth to a number of problems due to which the dreams of our forefathers still remains unfulfilled", Badal said.
 Citing an example of alleged infringement of states' right by the union government and its "serious" repercussions, the Chief Minister said that as per the constitution agriculture was a state subject "but now grabbing it the Centre was fixing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops and finalizing the prices of diesel and fertilizers besides other agriculture inputs due to which the agonies of farmers have increased manifold."
 He said that due to "non-remunerative" MSP and escalating costs of agricultural inputs, farming has no longer remained a profitable venture.
 Badal said that due to such "ill-conceived policies, the hard working farmers of the state was under reeling under heavy debt of more than Rs 32,000 crore adding that as per the figures of union government more than 2.90 lakh farmers across the country have been forced to commit suicide.
 He said the setting up of a "genuine federal structure in the country was the need of hour to fulfill the cardinal ideas of justice, equality and liberty enshrined in the constitution by our great freedom fighters and leaders".

Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST