Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V. Narayanasamy on Sunday challenged Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Fisheries L. Murugan to an open debate on the veracity of his claim that the Union Government had sanctioned ₹3,000 crore to the Union Territory over the last eight years of NDA rule at the Centre.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Narayanasamy said that Mr. Murugan, while making the claim that the amount included ₹1,800 crore for the Smart City Project, seemed to have forgotten that the Congress-DMK was in power in Puducherry for a few years since 2016 before the NDA Government took over.
Mr. Narayanasamy said he could prove that Mr. Murugan’s claim was false and merely an attempt to divert the attention of the people of the Union Territory.
While the Central assistance for crop insurance for farmers and Ayushman Bharat were for all States, the Minister sought to portray it as something special for Puducherry, he said.
Stating that the Centre had failed to provide any additional funds to Puducherry during the one year of the AINRC-BJP Government, Mr. Narayanasamy dared the Minister to an open debate on the latter’s ‘misleading’ claims.
Pointing out that two Ministers and some MLAs had met Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan with an appeal to expedite Central schemes for the Union Territory, the Congress leader wondered if this could be construed as their loss of faith in Chief Minister N. Rangasamy. This also validated his earlier allegation that the Lt. Governor was acting as a ‘super CM’ and Mr. Rangasamy had no role to play, he said.
If Ministers in a coalition Cabinet did not trust the Chief Minister, they should quit their posts instead of pretending that all was well within the government, he said.
The one year of NDA rule in Puducherry was associated more with pain and suffering for the people than any significant achievement, and such a government would be a short-lived one, Mr. Narayanasamy said.
