PUDUCHERRY: Former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Monday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to provide Puducherry with full Statehood and include it within the ambit of the Central Finance Commission.
In a letter to Shah, Narayanasamy stated, "During the campaign for Assembly elections in Puducherry and Karaikal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah promised to bring developments in Puducherry. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured that Puducherry will get special category status." The PM said he would make Puducherry the BEST State by bringing development in business, education, and tourism. But even after the results in May 2021 and with the UT government completing one year in a few weeks, nothing has developed, he added.
According to the former Minister, "The State Government didn't even get 5% additional grants from the Centre. It got 1.6% additional grants, despite its entitlement to 41% as per the CFC norms." Apart from Statehood and CFC, political parties demand the waiver of the Legacy loan to the tune of ₹8,000 crore and an additional grant of ₹2,000 crore.
Speaking about the Central panel that studied the UT's economic situation during his regime, Narayanasamy said, "The report stated Puducherry was entitled to ₹3,000 crore grant every year. But unfortunately, we were given ₹1,724 crore, which is 22% of the revenue." All States get 41% of grant, but Puducherry has been betrayed, he said, adding that he has penned several on this matter and raised this demand when he met the PM.
"Other issues that are pending are infrastructure development, strengthening of co-operative institutions, mills. The employees of cooperative mills lost jobs and these old mills have to be reopened, as they will give job opportunities for nearly 10,000 in Puducherry and Karaikal, as recruitment was not done by the government for the past several years," he said.
He added, priority must be given to Smart City projects brought during Congress rule and implementation of old pension schemes for government servants.