Other States - Pondicherry   

Seat-sharing talks going on smoothly, says Narayanasamy

Special Correspondent

"MLAs have legal sanction for posts of chairmen of corporations"

Pondicherry: All India Congress Committee General Secretary and MP V. Narayanasamy said on Tuesday that the seats which the constituents of the Democratic Progressive Alliance would contest in the Pondicherry Assembly polls would be decided in the next few days. He told reporters that the talks between AICC General Secretary B.K. Hariprasad (in charge of Congress affairs in Pondicherry) and leaders of the DPA in Chennai were going on in a cordial atmosphere. A decision on the seats of the DPA constituents, out of the total 30 constituencies available, would be taken shortly.

The DPA constituents are the Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the two Communist parties.

Mr. Narayanasamy, who is a member of the party's election committee, said legislators in Pondicherry, who were also chairmen of certain statutory bodies and corporations, were not running any risk of holding offices of profit. Because when they were appointed to the posts they had the legal sanction to hold the posts while being MLAs. The Acts under which these chairpersons were appointed had inbuilt provision to let the MLAs to function as chairmen also.

Hence those coming out with allegations that the MLAs were holding offices of profit were only labouring under mistake, Narayanasamy contended

Booking of cases

He felt anguished over the partial manner in which the authorities were booking cases against those holding demonstrations, particularly after code of conduct came into force. While Youth Congress volunteers were arrested and charged with certain offences the Bharatiya Janata party volunteers who also did so were going scot-free.

Sonia's decision hailed

The coordinator of the Pondicherry based Rajiv Yuva Kendra, P. Venkatachalapathy, has said that the decision of AICC leader Sonia Gandhi to quit the posts of Member of Parliament and also the chairperson of the National Advisory Council showed that she was not after power and that she had concern for the good of the nation.

In a release here on Tuesday, Mr. Venkatachalapathy said that Sonia Gandhi would emerge with massive win in Rae Bareli constituency and in the wake of her victory in the poll. The guidelines she had given to the Congress led UPA government at the Centre were helpful to frame welfare programmes and also to take the nation on the path of progress and development.

Port project

Mr. Venkatachalapathy appealed to the Administration to drop its plan to expand the port project in Thengaithittu village in Modeliarpet segment here, as any such extension would mean acquisition of large tracts of land and displacement of the farmers, farm workers and residents in the area.

He said that as the government had handed the work relating the expansion of the port project to a private agency, there would be absolutely no possibility for locals to get jobs in the port.

He felt sorry over the present trend of private entrepreneurs closing down the industries whenever workers raised reasonable demands for hike in wages and also for other facilities in the units.

Appointing workers particularly graduates on contract basis had been causing havoc to the career prospects of young job seekers.

There was need for a fresh and welfare oriented industrial policy.

At present the interests of entrepreneurs were gaining precedence over the welfare of young workers as they faced uncertain future in the undertakings.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Seat-sharing talks going on smoothly, says Narayanasamy
PMC to release candidate list today
Process of adding genuine voters on, says CEC
Cases registered against 24 for bogus certificates
Identifying sensitive constituencies almost over

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu