PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Opposition DMK and Congress on Wednesday advised Chief Minister N Rangasamy to take a leaf out of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's book and snap its alliance with the BJP. The opposition also accused Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan of running a parallel government in the Union Territory and playing politics.
The Opposition parties walked out of the Legislative Assembly, after donning black shirts, on the day of the commencement of the budget session. Leader of Opposition R Siva said that while Rangasamy‘s AINRC entered into an alliance with the BJP for the UT's development as the party is in power at the Centre, the coalition has not benefited Puducherry.
Though the NDA government is the AINRC and BJP, the latter wants complete rule in Puducherry, alleged Siva, adding that BJP's words and actions are different. He said, the BJP’s tall promises of BEST Puducherry, double-engine growth, industrialisation and employment, revival of sick mills and PSUs remain on paper. "Raj Nivas has become a BJP office and an RSS tent.
The L-G acts arbitrarily. She despises the government and elected representatives and she has failed to do her duty as Administrator of the UT," he added. According to the leader of the opposition, even the presentation of a full-fledged budget has not materialised in the beginning of the year for the second year in a row, now only an interim budget for five months was presented.
The L-G, the chairperson of the State Planning Board (SPB),did not convene the SPB meeting even after the allocation of central assistance for Puducherry was made in the Union Budget. It was only convened much later on July 6 and the draft budget was finalised and submitted to the Centre a month ago. The L-G did not take any action for the last one month to inform the Centre about additional funds required to finance the budget, he said.
Meanwhile, no additional funds have been allotted to Puducherry, so far. In fact, the quantum of Central assistance also decreased. “Last year, central assistance of Rs 1,874 crore was disbursed, but this year it was reduced to Rs 1,724 crore, Rs 150 crore less. Did you wait 5 months for this," he asked. "The L-G made various visits to Delhi and called on the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Finance Minister and raised expectations of Puducherry getting additional funds to revive the Lt.
Governor who had gone to Delhi for political reasons, '' said Siva. “The BJP said additional funds would be provided if the CM meets the PM. Now that the meeting took place and a petition seeking the funds and statehood was submitted, how much additional funds have been given to the UT," he asked. Residents are confused if new taxes were going to be imposed or any welfare schemes were going to be halted, he added. Siva's advice is significant as Rangasamy, similar to Nitish Kumar, can form a government with Opposition support.
In the 33-member Legislative Assembly, the DMK has six, Congress has two, AINRC has 10, BJP has nine (six elected and three nominated) and six independents with three supporting BJP and another three supporting AINRC. It must be noted, unlike Bihar, Puducherry is an UT, a centrally administered territory under the Ministry of Home Affairs.