PUDUCHERRY: Former Union Minister of State for PMO V Narayanasamy on Thursday said those who say Congress is losing its base in the UT are day-dreaming.
He said this while addressing a protest of the Congress party’s demonstration at Mudaliarpet against the ruling All India N R Congress government. He was reacting to a response to Rajya Sabha member P Kannan’s remarks on Wednesday.
Narayanasamy, recalling DMK leader and former Chief Minister R V Janakiraman’s comments after the DMK took over the reign of the Union Territory that the Congress party would be vanquished from the Union Territory, said the people know well what happened afterwards and added that the party (DMK) itself went into oblivion.
Later, talking to Express, Narayanasamy said he would not react to the comments of Kannan. The former Union Minister said he had prepared a list of persons against whose comments he should not react and Kannan was one among them.
Narayanasamy, said the ruling N Rangasamy government did not spend the full plan outlay in the last year’s budget. He added that the Congress would monitor both inside and outside of the Assembly to see if the plan outlay of `2400 crore in the present Budget was spent fully.
Pointing out that the Rangasamy government could spend only `1,650 crore out of the plan outlay of `2000 crore in the last budget, he claimed the government would not spend `650 crore out of the Plan outlay Rs 2400 in this year’s budget.
Narayanasamy alleged bias in distribution of schemes like free rice, rain coats etc and said they were reaching the beneficiaries of Kadirgamam constituency only, as it is the Chief Minister’s, and sarcastically commented that the name of Puducherry should be changed to Kadirgamam.
The former Union Minister of State for PMO reiterated his demand for a CBI probe into the alleged corruption in the free rice scheme. He condemned the N R Congress government for its failure on all fronts and charged Rangasamy with appointing 5,000 people in jobs through the back door.
He charged the Chief Minister also with failing to prevent the exodus of industries from the UT. Presently, there are only 1,100 as against the 10,000, he said and added that the three centuries-old textile mills were closed.