The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Rangasamy reiterates statehood plea

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Monday, Oct 18, 2004

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Other States - Pondicherry

Rangasamy reiterates statehood plea

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY, OCT. 17. The Centre should concede the plea of the Pondicherry Government for statehood with special status, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy has said.

Addressing the first State level conference of the Federation of Associations of Pondicherry Government Employees here on Saturday, he said that with the present constitutional status of Pondicherry as a Union Territory, the Government could not take decisions on its own on various issues including demands of the government staff. Most of the time the Administration had to approach the Centre for sanction of funds and approval of the proposals.

Mr. Rangasamy called upon Government staff and industrialists to stand in solidarity with the government in its efforts to obtain statehood.His Government never intended to incur the displeasure of the government employees, he said. He listed the demands of various sections of employees, which were settled in a phased manner. Union Minister of State for Home S. Ragupathy said he would peruse the resolutions adopted at the conference for appropriate action wherever the Centre's intervention was necessary. He said he found that problems of people and the Government staff differed from one Union Territory to another. V. Narayanasamy, MP and Pondicherry Pradesh Congress president, stressed the need for formation of an Administrative Reforms Commission in Pondicherry to tackle the government staff's problems. He felt sorry that by and large officials in the Union Territory did not want to take up responsibility and there were conflicting approaches on their part while dealing with the government staff's demands. He also appealed to the Chief Minister to form a Committee to settle the staff's demands. A branch of the Union Public Services Commission should be set up in Pondicherry for making recruitments to help candidates of Pondicherry get jobs.

M. Ramadoss, MP, said that he had made out a strong case with the Centre to ensure Pondicherry was conferred B2 status. He said he had suggested to the Home Ministry to take a holistic view on the criterion for application to grant B2 status to Pondicherry, which would help government staff to get enhanced house rent allowance at 15 percent instead of 7.5 percent they were now getting.

Pay commission

The conference urged the Centre to form the Sixth Pay Commission to determine the revised pay structure for the government staff.

It also urged conferment of B 2 status on Pondicherry city.

Other resolutions called for regularising daily rated employees with the posts themselves be treated as regular posts, review of recruitment rules framed five years ago and formulation of fresh rules in the context of the existing cadre requirements, establishment of a chapter of the Union Public Services Commission in Pondicherry or creation of Pondicherry Public Services Commission so that recruitments from among local candidates could be made without difficulty appointment of technocrats to man public sector undertakings instead of associating bureaucrats and steps to fill all vacant posts instead of assigning additional duties to the employees. Copies of resolutions adopted at the conference were handed to Mr. Ragupathy and the Chief Minister.

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