Puducherry, Nov 25 (BPNS)
The confrontation that has been boiling between the Chief Secretary of Puducherry with the elected Government has reached a flashpoint with the recent visit of the Central government team on rain assessment.
While the Chief Minister has in his memorandum to the Union Home minister requested for a relief of Rs 300 crore, the administration projected the losses between Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore to the Central team from the home ministry who was on a visit to Puducherry and Karaikkal along with rain-affected areas of Tamil Nadu.
The legislators of the ruling AINRC, BJP combine and some independent MLA’s and the lone Congress MLA have protested against the Chief Secretary not acting in the best interests of the state. The legislators have threatened that they would take a dharna to the secretariat if the officials do not heed the request of the people’s representatives.
BJP legislator, Kalaynasundaram said that there are 20 IAS and 20 IPS officers in the Union Territory of Puducherry but they are reluctant to conduct field visits and that this was the reason for the failure of the administration to assess properly the damages incurred in the rains.
Legislators of AINRC and the BJP complained that the officials were lethargic to conduct field visits and that the people’s representatives would conduct protests across the state against the attitude of the officials which, according to the legislators are not in the good interests of the people of the territory.
The legislators also complained that the administration is not able to properly work during trying times of natural disasters including rains due to the acute shortage of staff. They said that there are around 10,000 vacancies of government staff including that of Deputy Thahsildhars, Junior Engineers, Teachers, Village administrative officers, Electricity linemen, and police constables. The legislators said that several other posts are also lying vacant leading to the failure of field visits and proper reporting.
MLA’s said that the elected government had given proposals to fill up these vacancies but the Chief Secretary was not giving the sanction for the posts.
The confrontation between the elected government and the Chief Secretary of the state does not augur well of the people of the Union Territory. This would lead to a situation wherein the administration turn standstill during the heavy rains and rain-related miseries.
