Former Chief Minister and Congress leader V. Narayanasamy on Sunday called for an inquiry to fix responsibility for the fiasco over the appointment of advocates from outside the Union Territory as law officers to defend the government in the Madras High Court and its subordinate courts.
Addressing a press conference, he said that though Chief Minister N. Rangasamy had submitted a list of advocates to Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, 15 of the 35 law officers appointed to the Madras High Court were from outside the Union Territory.
Alleging that it was specious for the Lt. Governor to claim that she had nothing to do with the preparation of the list that was notified with her signature of approval, Mr. Narayanasamy demanded an explanation from the Lt. Governor on whether she had signed the order without scrutiny or if the list recommended by the Chief Minister had been ignored and another set of names included, and on whose behest the changes were made.
Describing these appointments as another blow to the rights of the Union Territory, Mr. Narayanasamy sought to know whether this came about because of a lack of meritorious advocates in Puducherry, especially as lawyers had given notice for a token strike over the issue.
Reiterating his charge of corruption in the issuance of tender for garbage disposal in Puducherry, he said the Chief Minister, who holds the Local Administration portfolio, should initiate a probe to bring out the facts, especially since the Minister for Urban Basic Services, A.K. Sai J. Saravanan Kumar, had called for re-tendering the project as due process had not been followed.
What was also eyebrow-raising was that the Request for Proposal specifications were framed to favour a particular bidder, and that the tender process for the ₹9,000-crore project was initiated two years ahead of the expiry of the existing contract, he added.
Mr. Narayanasamy sought an explanation from the Chief Minister on the issuance of licences to about 100 liquor shops in the vicinity of sites where they are prohibited, such as temples, schools and residential neighbourhoods.
On the media’s projection of the recent protests against the EWS quota under the auspices of the Secular Democratic Progressive Alliance as being spearheaded by the DMK, Mr. Narayanasamy stated that while the DMK was indeed at the forefront of the agitation in Tamil Nadu, it was the Congress that was leading the alliance in Puducherry. The moot point, he hastened to add, was that secular forces need to stay united and continue to resist the “corrupt, anti-people policies” of the AINRC-BJP government.
