Badal blames UPA for ‘straining’ Centre-state relations

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday stepped up his attack on the Centre over ‘not getting’ invite to the foundation laying ceremony of a cancer hospital in Sangrur, even as Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad refuted the charge and said he was invited to the ceremony. Badal said, ‘the hostile attitude of the Congress-led UPA government towards the states ruled by opposition parties was straining the Centre-states relations in the country.’ In the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Union health minister on Thursday laid the foundation stone of the super-speciality hospital - a satellite centre of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh in Ghabdan village of Sangrur district.