PUDUCHERRY: Chief Minister N Rangasamy, heading the NDA government in the Union Territory (UT), skipped the 30th Southern Zonal Council Meeting, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Saturday.
The council comprises Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and the UTs of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep. Though both Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and the chief minister had been invited for the meet, only the L-G attended it. The chief minister also did not depute any of his ministers to represent him in the meeting.
A minister in the AINRC-BJP government, however, said there was no requirement for the chief minister to attend the meeting as the L-G would raise all issues of the UT in her address. There would be nothing on which the chief minister could speak and he would be a mere participant, he said.
Governors of the states had not been invited, so chief ministers or their representatives raised their issues, and L-Gs represented UTs. For Puducherry, however, there is an elected government as in states. So, only the chief minister should have been invited. Inviting two heads of administration for the same cause was not good. Participation of the executive head undermined the importance of the elected government, he said.
A minister in the AINRC-BJP government, however, said there was no requirement for the chief minister to attend the meeting as the L-G would raise all issues of the UT in her address.