PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry administration has begun making arrangements to declare November 1 as Pondicherry Liberation Day.
This was stated by Chief Minister N Rangasamy at a function held by French Indians Tamil Rights Forum on Saturday.
It may be noted that the Chief Minister had announced the government’s decision to declare November 1 as Pondicherry (now Puducherry) Liberation Day in his Independence Day speech on August 15.
He said the decision was taken after considering the recommendations of a committee, which had gone into the historical facts and evidence.
Meanwhile, in a notification, the Lieutenant Governor (in-charge) Ajay Kumar Singh declared a public holiday for all the regions of the Union Territory on November 1, 2014, on account of the Liberation Day under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.
However, the notification also declared a restricted public holiday on October 3, 2014, on account of Vijayadasami.
According to the Territorial government website, the French regained permanent control of the town only after 1816, but it had lost much of its glory by then. Successive Governors improved the infrastructure, industry, law and education over the next 138 years. In 1947 the English left India, but it was in 1954 when the French handed Pondicherry over to an independent India.
On November 1, 1954, the French possessions in India were de facto transferred to the Indian Union and Puducherry became a Union Territory. The 280 years of French rule then came to an end. But it was in 1963 that Puducherry officially became an integral part of India after French Parliament in Paris ratified the Treaty with India. In 1963, the Indian Parliament enacted the Government of Union Territories Act which provides for Legislative Assemblies and Council of Ministers in the Union Territories. In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 239 of the Constitution of India and Section 46 of the Government of Union Territories Act 1963, the President of India framed the Business of the Government of Puducherry (Allocation) Rules, 1963.