Puducherry, Feb 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy on Thursday hit out at Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy for failing to persuade the Centre to grant statehood for the Union Territory.
Addressing reporters on Thursday at his residence, Narayanasamy, the former chief minister of Puducherry, slammed Rangasamy for making “tall claims” about efforts to obtain statehood for the union territory — at the celebration of the 14th formation day of the ruling AINRC party yesterday — without having made sustained representations to the Centre to upgrade the UT into a full-fledged state.
Addressing cadres and delegates of the AINRC during the formation day celebrations yesterday, Rangasamy had said, “I have personally persuaded the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and other Central ministers to concede Puducherry’s demand for statehood. I have also written detailed letters in this regard to the Centre and I am confident that Puducherry will be upgraded into a full-fledged state.” Narayanasamy claimed that during his own tenure as chief minister (2016-2021), he had met the Prime Minister on several occasions and insisted that Puducherry should be granted statehood without any delay.
“I also reiterated the plea at the joint meeting of chief ministers of all states when I was the CM of Puducherry. But Rangasamy has failed to follow up, although on one occasion he had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister,” he said.
Training his guns on the ruling AINRC-BJP coalition government, he blamed them for the alleged poor state of law and order in Puducherry, as well as the infrastructure issues and insecurities faced by the people about their properties, apart from the delay in implementation of the promises made by AINRC in the run-up to the 2021 assembly polls.
The former chief minister accused the Rangasamy-led government of indulging in rampant corruption in the implementation of welfare schemes, especially in the procurement of laptops being distributed free of cost to students of higher secondary schools in the union territory.
Narayanasamy also said that the Congress would expose all the corrupt practices of the ruling AINRC-BJP coalition rule during its election campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Criticising the AINRC for having “bartered away” the lone Parliamentary seat to the BJP, he said it had caused frustration and disappointment among the rank and file of the party. PTI CORR SDP ANE
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