The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Winter session wound up in two hours

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Thursday, Dec 09, 2004

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Winter session wound up in two hours

By Our Staff Reporter

Pondicherry Dec. 8. The Pondicherry Assembly wound up its winter session with a single two-hour meeting, adjourning sine die after passing five Bills.

The five Bills passed were the Pondicherry Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments Bill 2004, the Pondicherry Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, the Pondicherry Village and Commune Panchayats (Amendment) Bill, the Pondicherry General Sales Tax (Second Amendment) Bill and the Pondicherry Village and Commune Panchayats (Second Amendment) Bill.

Participating in the debate on the depositors bill, members cutting across party lines urged the Government to ensure that money deposited in a private finance company here was returned to the depositors without any delay. Those whohad pledged gold jewels were running from pillar to post for redemption of the jewels, they said.

The Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy, assured them that the Government would do everything it can to protect the depositors.

Civic polls

The Chief Minister told the Opposition in the Assembly today that the Government would soon hold local body elections.

Countering the Opposition charges that the Government was delaying notification of the civic poll schedule, Mr. Rangasamy said his Government was committed to holding the elections soon.

Earlier the entire Opposition, comprising the seven-member Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the two-member All India Anna DMK and the lone Bharatiya Janata party legislator drew the House's attention to issues affecting farmers, textile mill workers and residential colonies.

As soon as the House commenced its sitting, the Speaker, M. D. R. Ramachandran, made obituary references to the former Tamil Nadu Minister, Tamizhkudimagan, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, former legislators of Pondicherry, S. M. Subbarayan (of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and R. Vaithianathan (of the Congress) and the former Editor of Debates of the Pondicherry Assembly Secretariat, Ramamoorthy.

A two-minute silence was observed after the references.

Placards displayed

The DMK legislators, led by R. V. Janakiraman (the leader of the Opposition), displayed placards urging the Government to announce dates for the civic polls, take over the Swadeshi and Bharathi mills and to help farmers affected by the recent rains.

The AIADMK members, A. Anbalagan and A. Kasilingam, said that the Government should take steps to rid the Public Works Department of its various "ills and corrupt practices." They also demanded reservation of wards for the Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes in the civic bodies before the poll schedule was finalised.

Mr. Rangasamy said the administration was taking care of the Backward Classes (BCs) and the Most Backward classes (MBCs) efficiently.

The Reservation for the MBCs, Mr. Rangasamy said, had been introduced for educational benefits. He said they would also benefit from various welfare schemes.

Steps were already taken to get the Centre's consent for reservation for the MBCs in employment, Mr. Rangasamy added, refuting the criticism that the Government had let the MBCs down.

Animal menace

The BJP member, A. M. Krishnamoorthy, turned up at the House wearing a pig's mask to convey the menace posed by pigs and stray animals in Pondicherry.

The AIADMK and BJP members staged a walkout in protest of the "Government's failure to initiate steps to tackle the problems of the people and also to control the pig menace in the town."

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