PUDUCHERRY: Senior Congress leader and former Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Monday urged the Rangasamy-led AINRC-BJP coalition ministry here to provide flood relief of Rs 5,000 to each family.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Narayanasamy said that the rain had played havoc in Puducherry and Karaikal regions.
Daily wage earners, farmers and other sections have been hit by torrential rains during the last ten days.
With the weatherman anticipating cyclonic weather in the next few days, the intensity of hardship would accentuate and the government should therefore distribute Rs 5,000 as flood relief to each family so that their sufferings could be eased to some extent, the former CM said.
He also said that while welcoming the announcement of the Chief Minister that each family covered under the public distribution system would be provided free rice and sugar as Diwali gift, the Lt Governor should clarify whether she had the nod of the Centre to supply rice instead of cash equivalent to the families.
"When the Congress under my leadership was in power there was circular from the Centre to the territorial government that only cash under DBT system should be paid to the ration card holders and that rice should not be distributed," he said.
This stand of the Centre was in keeping with the stand taken by the then Lt Governor Kiran Bedi that only cash should be remitted to bank account of the beneficiaries instead of supply of rice, he said.
Kiran Bedi took the stand of cash payment just to defeat the decision of the then elected government to supply rice through ration shops and to bring bad name to the then Congress government, he alleged.
"The present Lt Governor should however clarify whether she had the nod of the Centre to supply rice instead of remitting cash which was insisted by the Centre in the past," he said, adding that the Lt Governor has no power to deviate from the stand of the Centre taken in the past in Puducherry.
Narayanasamy said that he welcomed the reduction of VAT on petrol and diesel by Rs 7 per litre announced recently by the AINRC-BJP coalition ministry.
"At the same time, I want to know how Chief Minister Rangasamy would bear the loss arising out of the reduction in VAT on petrol and diesel as VAT is among the few major sources of revenue to the territorial government."
He claimed Rangasamy had surrendered before the Centre by slashing the VAT after the Centre announced a cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel.