Top

Rangasamy govt is weak and inefficient: Jayalalithaa

AIADMK chief assures statehood to Puducherry

Puducherry: Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Thursday made a blistering attack on her Puducherry counterpart, chief minister N. Rangasamy, describing him as ‘weak and ineffective’ and unable to raise his voice against the Centre, especially on the Karaikal fishermen issue.

Addressing a poll rally at Uppalam grounds when campaigning for the AIADMK candidate M.V. Omalingam, she said that a number of projects that could have worked out for the Union territory were left incomplete while law and order had been reduced to a mockery.

Ms Jayalalithaa said that when she had wooed voters for the assembly polls in 2011, there was overwhelming support for the alliance (NR Congress and AIADMK), but Mr Rangasamy ignored the AIADMK after the elections. Although he did not have absolute majority he formed the cabinet with the support of an Independent MLA, thus betraying the AIADMK and the voters who had responded to their alliance.

She said that Mr Rangasamy had been a silent spectator to the anti-people measures of the Congress led UPA at the Centre as also for not adopting a resolution on the floor of the Puducherry assembly to protest against the anti Tamil attitude of the Sri Lankan government. The AIADMK chief appealed to voters to ensure the defeat of the DMK, Congress and NR Congress in the elections.

She also referred to the failure of the NR Congress government to utilise the coalfield allotted to the Pondicherry Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation (PIPDIC), thus depriving Puducherry the opportunity to generate power. The authority to produce power was handed over to a private agency

Coming down heavily on Union minister of state for PMO V. Narayanasamy, she said that as an MP from Puducherry he had done nothing for the setting up of industries, job creation, the establishment of a Special Economic Zone and other developmental programmes, nor taken up the statehood issue.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised statehood for Puducherry on the floor of Parliament in 1998, but political change at the Centre had kept the plan in cold storage.

Further, Jayalalithaa assured that if the AIADMK formed part of the next government at the Centre, Puducherry would be granted statehood.

( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story