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“Congress not averse to having a coordination panel”

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

Stock TAKING: Congress leaders with members of the monitoring panel on the implementation of the election manifesto in Puducherry on Monday.

PUDUCHERRY: The Congress leadership on Monday made it clear that the party was not averse to forming a coordination panel comprising alliance partners in the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Shortly after holding discussions with members of the monitoring panel on the implementation of the election manifesto here, Congress Working Committee member Arun Kumar, who is in-charge of party affairs in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, told reporters that there was nothing wrong in constituting a coordination committee and there was no difficulty in doing so.

Asked if the Congress would concede the demand for setting up a coordination committee akin to the panel formed by the United Progressive Alliance and the Left parties at the Centre, he said, “If we feel that such a committee is needed, we will have it.”

The function of the coordination committee was to settle political differences among the alliance partners, he said, adding that right now the need for setting it up had not arisen as “everything was going smooth in the Union Territory.”

When it was pointed out that the Pattali Makkal Katchi, an alliance partner of the Congress, had taken up the issue with the Congress high command, he said, “It is news to me. If they ask us we will discuss it.”

Asked if the meeting provided an opportunity to iron out differences between the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues, he said there was no need for that as everybody was happy.

Even if there were differences, they would be sorted out locally, he added.

He dubbed the burning of effigies of some Congress leaders recently as “bad.” Condemning such incidents, he asked the Chief Minister to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

He stressed the need for maintaining law and order by booking the persons who were responsible for such acts. He described the performance of the UT government with regard to implementation of the Congress manifesto for 2006 Assembly elections as “wonderful”. To another query, he said, there were some “grey areas” which also would be rectified.

Among others, Chief Minister N.Rangasamy, All India Congress Committee secretary K.B.Krishnamurthy, Pradesh Congress Committee president P.Shanmugam, Rajya Sabha Member V.Narayanasamy and Ministers V.Vaithilingam, E.Valsaraj, M.O.H.F.Shahjahan, Malladi Krishna Rao and M.Kandasamy participated in the meeting.

Implementation of various projects which were promised in the election manifesto was discussed threadbare at the meeting that lasted over four hours, PCC sources said.

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