Resolution adopted seeking statehood

The Union territory Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution urging the Centre to confer statehood on the UT comprising four regions. Except the Congress legislator from Yanam, Malladi Krishna Rao, all the other members had supported the statehood resolution.

Chief Minister N Rangasamy said that to ensure the development of the Union Territory and to implement schemes speedily, statehood was a necessity. Puducherry administration did not have powers to implement schemes unless approved by the Union government and hence the proposals get delayed and even stalled, he said.

“We want a unified state with all the four regions together,” said Rangasamy and added that every MLA was united on the demand and there was no difference of opinion.

Rangasamy further said that the two MPs from Puducherry, Union Minister of state for PMO V Narayanasamy and Rajya Sabha member P Kannan, should pursue the matter and help in achieving statehood. He also sought the support from TN CM J Jayalalithaa and DMK president M Karunanidhi.

Moreover, with the opening of a separate public account for the UT, it was treated at par with states having to manage its finances. The government of India’s assistance has come down to 30 per cent in place of 70 per cent prior to the opening of the public accounts. Puducherry was not getting the central revenue collected from Puducherry, which they would get if Puducherry became a state. 

However, Malladi Krishna Rao said that special category statehood would not be possible for Puducherry because of the lack of contiguity and linguistic homogeneity, citing the State Reorganisation Act of 1956. Rao disagreed that statehood will bring prosperity. Drawing a comparison, he said that Puducherry being a UT was getting higher per capita fund from Centre as compared to Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu (TN).

While Puducherry got `9,256 (`1157 crore against a population of 12.5 lakh), TN got `2,854 (`20,579 crore for 7.21 crore population) and AP got `3,808 (`32,218 crore for 8.46 crore population)  from the Government of India.