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Appoint full-time Lieutenant Governor for Puducherry: CPI

PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday urged the Centre to appoint a full-time Lieutenant Governor for the Union Territory.Briefing newspersons on the resolutions adopted by the unit’s executive committee, Puducherry CPI secretary N. Kalainathan said the office of the Lt. Governor was important for the UT administration.

As Mr. Bhopinder Singh, Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar, who held additional charge, was unable to stay in Puducherry, pending files were not cleared and the administration had come to a standstill, he said. Issuance of G.O. on abolition of the common entrance test was delayed, as the Lt. Governor was not present in the UT then.

On the demand for statehood, Mr. Kalainathan and national council member of the party R. Viswanathan flayed the stand taken by Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Planning V. Narayanasamy and Leader of the Pattali Makkal Katchi in Parliament M. Ramadass that special category status was ideal for the UT.

It was unfortunate that the two leaders had taken this stand even as the legislators belonging to their parties had voted in favour of the government-sponsored resolution demanding statehood for Puducherry, they said.

Mr. Kalainathan urged the Chief Minister to take a delegation of legislators, belonging to all parties, to New Delhi in the first week of June to meet the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and highlight the demand for statehood.

According to Mr. Kalainathan, factors such as the government’s decision to promote all Standard XI and XII students without assessing their performance, failure to appoint a director exclusively for the Department of School Education for the last two years and lack of adequate number of teachers had led to the fall in the overall pass percentage of students in the Plus Two examinations.

He asked the government to conduct a proper review to ensure that the pass percentage went up in the next academic year.

Responding to the call given by the national executive committee of the CPI, the party’s Puducherry unit would also launch a de-hoarding campaign, besides demanding the government to supply 25 essential articles through the public distribution system as advised by the Standing Committee of Parliament and seeking a ban on online trade, he said.

He flayed the police for “not taking action” against the activists owing allegiance to a government employees’ association for insulting a woman officer, though a case under non-bailable sections had been registered against them.

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