PUDUCHERRY: Amidst divergent opinions on statehood for the UT of Puducherry, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today said that a decision to seek Statehood or Statehood with Special category status will be taken after eliciting the views of leaders of all political parties.
Referring to AIADMK Legislative party leader A Anbazhagan in the Legislative Assembly after he advised the government to seek only statehood instead of Statehood with special status as the guidelines for Special category were not applicable to Puducherry, the chief minister replying in the assembly said that he was in favour of Statehood with special category state status for Puducherry to get better finance and other concessions for Puducherry.
He cited the instance of states like Andhra Pradesh and Bihar which despite being states were seeking the status of Special category state and neither those states fitted into the guidelines to merit the status of states with Special category status.
Despite this the union cabinet had agreed to provide special category state status to Andhra Pradesh once and in such a case Puducherry could also merit one.
However Anbazhagan pointed out that since the centre did not grant Special category statehood status to Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam party in power had quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Puducherry is at a juncture that it should regain the democratic rights of the elected government (as all decisions taken by the elected government are subject to approval by Lt Governor and Ministry of Home Affairs) for which statehood is a must, he said.
Therefore the state government should take concrete steps to get statehood for Puducherry leaving aside the demand for special category state status which will not be provided by the centre, he said.
He said that it should be discussed in the Assembly and decision taken. Leader of Opposition and AINRC President N Rangasamy while briefing the media said faulted the Narayanasamy for favouring statehood with special category status and said that the government was hoodwinking the people knowing fully well that it was not achievable.
Puducherry did not merit the status as none of the conditions stipulated for getting the status was applicable to Puducherry.
Though he said that he favoured statehood , he however parried replying when asked whether AINRC would support the government in achieving statehood for Puducherry.
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