Other States - Puducherry   

Cabinet continues to be a divided house

PUDUCHERRY: Monday was a day of hectic political activity in Puducherry. The Cabinet met after several weeks to propose the schedule for the budget session of the Assembly, all five Ministers held separate confabulations and leaders of the Communist Party of India announced their decision to call on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss problems faced by the administration in the Union Territory.

Around 60 minutes before the Cabinet met in the Assembly complex, Ministers V. Vaithilingam, M.O.H.F. Shahjahan, E. Valsaraj, Malladi Krishna Rao and M. Kandasamy held discussions at the residence of Mr. Valsaraj. Though the Cabinet was scheduled to meet at 10 a.m., it was delayed by 50 minutes, as all the five Ministers arrived at the venue at 10.50 a.m. The Ministers, along with several MLAs, have also decided to attend the orientation programme in New Delhi slated for March 12-14. The programme, to be held by the Parliament Secretariat, would cover topics such as issues faced by new Members, their duties, dos and don’ts, preparation of the budget, finance committees, standing committees and House committees.

Shortly after the Cabinet meeting, Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy said he had already highlighted at the meeting the problems relating to implementation of the special component plan (SCP) for dalits in the UT. If steps were not taken to earmark 16 per cent of the budgetary allocation for the SCP and fulfil the assurances given in the Assembly for the welfare of the dalits, he would call on Ms. Gandhi in New Delhi and apprise her of the problems.

As chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the SCP in the UT, he had appealed to dalit organisations not to resort to agitations , as they would pose hardship to the public.

The dalit organisations had been urging the government to come out with a White Paper on the allocation of funds for the SCP for the past 10 years and create a separate department for the implementation of the SCP, he added.

Secretary of the Puducherry unit of the CPI N. Kalainathan said a party delegation would call on Ms. Gandhi shortly and present their views on the state of affairs in the UT, with particular reference to the “infighting” in the Cabinet and “failure” on the part of some bureaucrats to cooperate with Ministers.

Referring to a resolution adopted by the CPI’s Puducherry unit, he said the delegation would stress the need for setting up of a coordination committee comprising representatives of the Congress and its alliance partners to end the stalemate.

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

Stories in this Section

Cabinet continues to be a divided house
Cane growers demand free power
Profit slumps, so does farmers’ spirit at ‘uzhavar sandhai’
VLCC opens centre in Puducherry
Petit Seminaire School goes on a talent hunt
Continuing Medical Education programme held
Employees to go on mass casual leave
Youth held
3 policemen injured
Reallocation of work for officials announced
Modernisation of police control room hits roadblock

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu