Toady, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a vigorous pitch for the Centre and states to work together as ‘Team India’ to take the country forward, a view endorsed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
And in comforting words to the fiery Trinamool Congress chief, Modi expressed confidence that West Bengal, whose progress, he said, had earlier determined the country’s economic development, would surely bounce bank in the coming days and become an “important economic power”.
Vowing to work with the states to “take India forward”, the Prime Minister said it has been a “misfortune” that in the past there have been tensions between states and the Centre.
“I too have been a Chief Minister for many years and I know that this attitude (of the Centre) towards states will not help anyone. Our Constitution has given us a federal structure. But unfortunately Centre-state relations have always come under stress”, he said after the inauguration of modernised IISCO Steel Plant here in the presence of Banerjee.
