Puducherry, Aug 28 (PTI) Strongly backing the long-pending statehood demand, Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Friday said he was even ready to quit over the issue, pointing out that he had reminded Centre that the UT cannot continue to “remain without powers”.
He made the remarks on the floor of the Assembly during a debate when Leader of the opposition A M H Nazeem called for unified protest “against the delay in Centre giving its nod for statehood to Puducherry.” Ruling AINRC legislator A John Kumar, who was then participating in the debate said that the Union Territory should be granted special category status.
Nazeem (DMK) said that “we should all show our protest to press the statehood demand.” Responding, the chief minister said, “I am ready to quit to reinforce our demand for statehood. We would all go to Delhi to place before the Centre our plea for Statehood.” “I am aware of the difficulties the government is now facing for want of powers to the government and to the territorial Assembly while Puducherry remained a UT. I have made the plea for statehood on several occasions and particularly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Puducherry in the recent past,” he added.
Rangasamy heads the ruling AINRC-BJP-AIADMK-LJK bloc.
“I have specifically told the Prime Minister that it is a matter of concern for us that we continue to remain without powers”, he said. It was his firm contention that for speedy development of Puducherry and also for expeditious implementation of several schemes “statehood is absolutely necessary”.
Following Rangasamy’s remarks, almost all the members, both ruling and opposition also announced that they too would quit their posts to press for the statehood demand.
The pro tem Speaker A Anbalagan said that the Assembly had adopted resolutions on several occasions in the past to persuade the Centre to grant statehood to Puducherry. Anbalagan also said that special category status would never be possible for Puducherry as there were several conditions that could not be satisfied by the UT to qualify for such a status. Hence statehood alone should be pressed. PTI CORR SA
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