In a recent development, the territorial government has moved to amend the Rules of Business of the Puducherry government. For this, the government had constituted a five-member committee with secretary (Law) as chairman, special secretary (personnel) as member secretary and secretary(finance), retired law secretary A Ragou and PCS officer (retd) H Dasarathan as members.
The committee constituted on April 2 would examine and recommend suitable amendments in the Rules of Business of the government wherever necessary and would submit a report within a period of one month.
The rules were notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 22 June,1963 and was amended on Nov 12, 1973. It deals with administrator’s executive functions, disposal of business allocated among ministers and executives and matters for which reference is to be made to the Government of India.
This move by the government was to have sparked off following the controversy over the appointment of Finance Secretary. Puducherry government had appointed W V R Murthy replacing Rajiv Yaduvanshi, but it was not approved by the Home ministry. The ministry citing the business rules pointed out that the powers for appointment of Finance Secretary rest with the ministry and not Puducherry government. At the same time, the government also has been clamouring for power as projects and schemes promised by the government often get delayed while seeking the approval of the ministry concerned. In the meantime, for getting powers in certain areas, the government has taken the initiative to amend the Rules of Business.
However, when the Home Ministry and Puducherry government are at loggerheads, will the plan of Puducherry government to go in for amendment materialise?