Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Saturday took strong exception to the Centre’s move for daily revision of petrol and diesel prices in five cities including Puducherry from May 1 and urged the Centre to reconsider the decision.
Speaking to reporters, he said the proposed plan to migrate to a dynamic pricing model on a pilot basis would definitely cause confusion among petrol dealers and customers. Petrol dealers had already come out expressing their strong reservation over the move.
Mr. Narayanasamy said that he would write to the Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to reconsider the move and exempt Puducherry from the pilot scheme.
A cultural complex named after Rabindranath Tagore would come up in the precincts of the Bharathiyar Palkalaikoodam at ₹14.83 crore. The construction work for the complex would begin shortly.
Plea for HC Bench
Referring to the representation made by the All India Bar Association for establishing a Bench of the Madras High Court in Puducherry, he said it was a genuine plea and that he would take it up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Law Minister and the Chief Justice of India.
Puducherry had 11 courts while Karaikal had four courts followed by Mahe and Yanam regions with three each. As many as 33,899 cases had been settled in Puducherry in 2014. While Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya and Sikkim had a High Court of their own there was every justification for Puducherry to have a Bench of the Madras High Court here.
An all-party meeting would also be convened to push the demand, he said.
Mr. Narayanasamy also announced a list of names of scholars for the grant of Tamil Ratna award and also the Telugu Ratna award . As many as 20 Tamil scholars and one Telugu scholar would be presented an award of ₹75,000 and a certificate.
