PUDUCHERRY: Opposition DMK and Congress members staged a walkout in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly on Friday protesting against the government's reluctance to move and adopt a resolution seeking statehood for Puducherry in the Assembly.
Immediately after the obituary references condoling the demise of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, the DMK members who attended the session in school uniform after arriving in cycles and Congress members, were up on their feet, demanding that a government resolution on statehood be moved and passed.
Leader of Opposition R Siva said that it was important to take up the resolution and time be provided to discuss and adopt it. While the Chief Minister has been expressing the necessity of statehood citing difficulties, the Lt Governor was maintaining that whatever benefits Puducherry would get if it was a state, it is getting as a UT now. “ Which is true should be clarified on the floor of the House," he said.
Other DMK members who joined maintained that actual power rested with the Administrator and the bureaucracy who were taking several decisions even without the knowledge of the Chief Minister. The funds provided by the Centre were being returned due to lethargy by the bureaucracy.
The elected government did not even have the power to effect transfers for Puducherry Civil Service officers, while the Chief Secretary had all powers. Independent MLA G Nehru alias Kuppusamy also raised the statehood issue and wanted a resolution to be adopted seeking statehood. He said that the Lt Governor was doing everything and added that an IAS officer was posted as the new Commissioner of Puducherry Municipality, of which the Chief Minister was not even aware. The Municipal commissioner with whom the public has to interact on a day-to-day basis does not know Tamil.
The DMK and Congress members also raised the issue of delay in providing uniforms, cycles, and laptops to government school students, and the operation of school buses and said that even the meals that were provided were tasteless and sought a reply from the government.
This evoked no reply from Chief Minister N Rangasamy and his ministers, following which the two Congress members M Vaidianathan and Ramesh Parambath staged a walkout. The DMK members continued to raise issues, while the Speaker R Selvam moved on to the next business, following which six DMK members- Siva, AMH Nazeem, Anibal Kennedy, R Sambath, R Senthil Kumar and M. Nagathiagrajan also staged a walkout.
Later a DMK member and former health minister A M H Nazeem, from Karaikal said that the government should constitute a committee to assess the damages to crops due to heavy rains at the time of harvesting and provide relief to the farmers. Immediately independent member P Siva rose and made the same demand.
Home Minister A Namassivayam tabled a copy of the Notification issued under the Puducherry Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005. The House passed the appropriation bill for the supplementary appropriation of Rs 989,25,89,000 from an out-of-a-consolidated fund of the UT of Puducherry for 2022-2023.
The Speaker R Selvam adjourned the house sine die after conducting for 24 minutes.