Jaya pitches for inter-state cooperation warns against forces of disintegration

Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday urged people not to be guided by the forces of disintegration, but by those that are making concerted efforts for the consolidation and unity of the States.

Sharing the dais with Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the 76^th Utkal Dibas Samaroha, organized by Utkal Association in Chennai, Jayalalithaaa said regional inter-state co-operation has been the ‘touch-stone’ of development indices and the Indian states are not isolated from each other’s growth impulses and the future belongs to co-operation and not isolationism.

“As the world keeps getting metaphorically smaller, it is impossible to imagine that states can survive or sustain themselves on a stand-alone basis,” she said.

“There is a definite and very high level of inter-dependence emerging in a situation wherein we need to act together, and prosper together, by a certain well understood system of bilateral relations, under which the outcomes would lead to a larger collective benefit,” Jayalalithaa added.

The chief minister said the areas, which come into the mental radar would include water, environment, transport, tourism, agriculture and law and order. Law and order, especially, becomes an important matter, in the wake of terrorist activities, drug trafficking and general maintenance of public order,” she added.

In the present system of multi-level governance, operating within a federal structure like that of India, harmonious relations with other States are indispensable, she said.