Puducherry, Jan 1 (BPNS)

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Puducherry, V. Narayanasamy lashed out at the NDA government in the Union territory stating that the government was hoodwinking people of the territory by promising statehood.

The senior Congress leader was speaking to reporters here on Saturday.

Narayanasamy said that Chief Minister N. Rangasamy had time and again spoken about the requirement of statehood but has failed to take the issue with the central government.

The former Chief Minister said that other than adopting a resolution in the territorial assembly on statehood no follow-up was done. Narayanasamy said that the resolution was not forwarded to the central government and that the Chief Minister had not communicated the same to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

He said that even after the BJP in Puducherry had promised special category status for Puducherry but the central government has stated in the Lok Sabha that granting Puducherry was not under consideration. The former Chief Minister said that this was a clear indicator that the promise of the BJP was hollow aimed at hoodwinking the people.

Narayanasamy said that the Central government was ignoring the Puducherry government and that the amount due to the UT was not sanctioned by the Central government. He also said that the central government was not considering the issues of inflation, unemployment of the Union Territory of Puducherry even though both the territorial government and the central government were governed by the NDA. He said that the NDA allies AINRC and the BJP were fighting among each other and malpractices were taking place in the UT.

The former Chief Minister lashed out at the NDA government in the UT for allowing New Year celebrations violating all the Covid protocols even as the Covid cases were on a spike including two Omicron cases being reported.