The Puducherry unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday asked the government here to convene a special session of the Assembly to pass a resolution urging the Centre to take control of the Cauvery river.
Addressing reporters here, CPI state unit secretary R Viswanathan and former MLA Na Ra Kalainathan said it was necessary that the Centre take control of the river as the Karnataka government obeyed neither the orders of the Supreme Court nor the directions of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) on the release of water to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.Viswanathan said Karaikal has suffered a loss of `75 crore this year as the region was yet to receive its share of the Cauvery water for the cultivation of samba crops. He alleged that Central ministers, many of whom were facing corruption charges, cheated the people of the Karaikal region.
Terming the Rangasamy administration as a ‘holiday government’, Vishwanathan, a former agricultural minister, said it was yet to take any steps to contain the spread of dengue in Puducherry.
The CPI leader also warned that party cadre would resort to protests if the government did not start the distribution of the single boiled rice within 30 days. He said protestors would “dump the bad quality rice” being distributed through the PDS system in front of the chief minister’s residence if the administration failed to comply. He also warned of protests outside the residence of the Leader of Opposition V Vaithilingam.
Vishwanathan wanted the Congress party to come clean on the “resignation drama” of Yanam MLA Malladi Krishna Rao. Later, the CPI put forth the demand of elections to various co-operatives and appointments to the 5,000 vacancies in government departments.