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Members seek copies of Assembly documents much in advance

Special Correspondent

After much noise, Assembly approves 2006-2007 supplementary expenditure

Puducherry: Cutting across party lines members of different political affiliations pushed the plea to Speaker R. Radhakrishnan on Thursday that the Government give them copies of documents placed before the Assembly much in advance to enable them to peruse. Opportunities should be available for them to air their views.

As soon as Chief Minister N. Rangasamy presented the statement showing "Estimate of Supplementary Expenditure for the fiscal 2006-2007", All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator A. Anbalagan pointed out that the copies should have been available much in advance.

The documents were distributed only a few minutes before the day's proceedings began. Members could not know the contents and could not air their views on the modalities of expenditure. He then moved towards the podium flaunting certain papers in support of his plea that there was a statutory right for a debate on the pattern of expenditure.

The Speaker maintained that the proceedings were strictly in accordance with the decision of the Business Advisory Committee of which Mr. Anbalagan was also a member.

Even as Mr. Anbalagan persisted with his request to arrange for a debate, the Speaker invited Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator R. Siva, MLA, to speak. It created a flutter. When normality returned, Mr. Siva contended that the departments should plan properly and spend the funds to better the lot of poor.

R. Rajaraman (DMK) said that there could be no two opinions on the plea that the members be given the copies of the statement much in advance. There should be general clarification as to how the funds were spent by the departments

K. Lakshminarayanan (Puducherry Munnetra Congress) said that the Members could not immediately go through the nearly 125 pages of the statement within seconds. S.P.Sivakumar (DMK) said that the sudden distribution of the statement had caught them unawares. R. Viswanathan (Communist Party of India) said that the departments should ensure adequate funds for schemes.

The Chief Minister told the members that it was the convention to seek approval of expenditure by the departments for the supplementary spending incurred in a financial year. He said that the request of the members for advance copies was justified. After this clarification, the House approved of the supplementary expenditure for 2006-2007 by a voice vote.

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