Jayalalithaa, along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers of other BJP-ruled states used the forum of National Development Council (NDC) to criticise the Centre over allocation of funds and resources.
Jayalalithaa faulted the centre over several issues, like economic policies and FDI in multi-brand retail, and accused it of ignoring suggestions put forth by states by adopting "big brotherly and undemocratic approach".
She said the Manmohan Singh government was "caught up in the daily squabbles of its constituents" and "is merely trying to survive from day-to-day" as a result of which it has "neither the time nor the inclination to pay attention" to the problems of the people of this country.
She walked out of the NDC meeting accusing the Centre of "stifling" the voice of Chief Ministers by restricting their speeches to 10 minutes, terming it as a "big humiliation".
Yadav termed the decline in central assistance to states as a cause of "serious concern" and asked the Centre to discourage the practice of not taking state governments on board while finalising sectoral distributions.