Congress demand statehood for Puducherry UT

Puducherry April 26 In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Chief Minister of Puducherry and senior Congress leader, V. Narayanasamy said that the party demands statehood to the union territory.

In the letter written on Monday, Narayanasamy called for including the union territory in the ambit of the Central Finance Commission.

He said that during the election campaign for the 2021 Assembly elections, both Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that the best would be provided to Puducherry.

He also said that the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also promised to provide special category status to Puducherry.

Narayanasamy said that the promises of bringing in developments in tourism, business, and education have not been met with the government of the union territory about to complete a year in office in May 2022.

He said that the Central Finance Commission did not provide additional grants to Puducherry even though it was entitled to the same.

The former Chief Minister said that the government of the union territory did not get even 5 per cent additional grants from the Centre, adding that it was pure discrimination.

He also said that according to studies conducted while he was in office, the union territory was entitled to a Rs 3,000 crore grant every year but was given only Rs 1,724 crore.

Narayanasamy further mentioned the strengthening of the cooperative sector in the union territory and said that several people have lost jobs from cooperative spinning mills which were once the lifeline of Puducherry.

He called upon reopening the mills as it would provide jobs to nearly 10,000 people.