Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today accused the Centre of "squeezing" states in terms of powers wrested with them for development and other issues.

"Today the Centre is making it a unitary form of system...even for clearance of a map of link road, the state had to approach the Centre first," Badal told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here to mark the completion of 150 years of Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

"There is strong need for a federal system...states have been squeezed," he said while charging the Congress-led central government with failing to initiate steps for the development of human resource.

"Even so many years after independence the country is facing the problem of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment at a large scale," he added.

Besides, Badal said the country would continue with the coalition form of government. "In the coalition government the role of regional parties will get broader each day as they better understand the problems of the people," he said.

On a question that his family is facing internal fights with his nephew and sacked Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal raising voice against the Badal clan, he parried the direct reply by saying family fiefdom is prevalent in the Congress as well.

Without naming Manpreet, he said that the party was not getting damaged by somebody revolting against it.

"SAD has a long history of making sacrifices whenever the country had faced any problem," he said when his attention was drawn whether Manpreet was hijacking the agenda of SAD.

"People know the agenda of SAD and are its followers."

He, however, said that the Congress had always discriminated against Punjab and interests of the state.

Badal, who became active again after getting injured due to a fall at his residence last month, said he would re-start his 'sangat darshan' (meeting people at door steps) programme from November 21.

The announcement by Badal assumes significance in the wake of state youth Congress already doing yatras in Punjab and Manpreet declaring to do 'Jago Punjab Yatra' from November 24.

"The idea behind the sangat darshan is to remove the communication gap between the government and the common man," he said.

Badal wished that US President Barack Obama should have visited Amritsar during his India tour. "I wrote a letter in this connection to the Prime Minister as well," he added.