Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has declined to attend the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security to be presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
She said that such conference was an annual ritual exercise with little opportunity given to Chief Ministers to express their views.
She has instead deputed K.P. Munusamy, Minister for Municipal Administration, Rural Development, Law, Courts and Prisons, Home Secretary and Director-General of Police, to attend the conference to be held in Delhi on June 5.
In a letter addressed to Singh, Jayalalithaa said that the conference is, no doubt, a very important event since it concerns the primary function of the State - viz maintenance of public order.
'Annual ritual exercise'
“It is my experience, however, that this conference held by the Centre has become an annual ritualistic exercise where very little opportunity is given to the Chief Ministers to express their views on all items in the agenda,” she said.
“This conference too, carries a long and weighty agenda of 12 subjects. Uttering just their titles would in itself take 10 minutes which, unfortunately, is the time being cavalierly allotted to the Chief Ministers to present their views,” she said.