Puducherry: CM Narayanasamy wants Centre to treat the UT as ‘transgender’

The chief minister of Puducherry, V Narayanasamy, on Thursday, November 21, accused the Centre of treating the Union Territory differently while sanctioning grants and said, it could as well treat the union territory as a “transgender”. He also added that the present approach of the Centre was "whimsical" and treating Puducherry as a ‘State’ for some schemes and as ‘Union Territory’ for others was “helpless". He reportedly said this at the inauguration of a national seminar on ‘Emerging challenges of fiscal federalism in India'.

V Narayanasamy slams Centre

V Narayanasamy talking about the Centre, said, "While for the purpose of GST and other schemes, the Central government is treating Puducherry as a State and for others as a Union Territory. We cannot consequently go this way or the other".

He further asserted that the Centre was ignoring Puducherry in the allocation of grants to support the territorial budget besides cutting down the grant from 30% to 26%. Referring to ‘obstacles’ faced in implementing a free rice scheme, he said, “Lack of Centre’s adequate support and administrative hurdles from Lt Governor has been embarrassing us.” He also pointed out that the compensation on account of the implementation of GST from the Centre was due to Puducherry for the months of August and September. 

Read: Kiran Bedi slams Puducherry CM for 'Sister of Adolf Hitler' comment

Thomas Issac on Governor's intervention

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac who presided over the seminar said, “The intervention of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi in the implementation of welfare schemes only shows that there is mockery of democracy in Puducherry.” “If the Lt Governor is to determine what should be done only makes democracy a mockery,” he said.

Noting that the compensation for States implementing GST was a constitutional right, Issac said the Centre was only defaulting by not disbursing the amount for August and September. There was already a serious shortfall in the devolution of taxes by the Centre to the States, he claimed.

Read: World custom organisation: Asia-Pacific regional contact points meeting held in Puducherry

Kanimozhi and Balakrishnan slam Centre

Member of Parliament M K Kanimozhi (DMK), in her speech, expressed anguish over “best performing and progressive states” being penalised now. She said, “the big brother attitude and lopsided decisions of the Centre were also injurious.” She alleged GST and demonetisation have caused havoc and several industries in places like Tirupur in Tamil Nadu were closed because of the new tax regime. Tamil Nadu CPI(M) Secretary Balakrishnan pointed out that if there should be continued intervention by a Lt Governor in implementation of cabinet’s decisions in Puducherry, the question automatically arises whether there is a need for the post.” He also charged the present NDA government at the Centre with attempting to do away with multi-cultural and multilingual features of the nation.

(With PTI Inputs)

Read: Sabarimala: 12-year-old girl from Puducherry barred from entering Lord Ayyappa temple

Read: Puducherry CM refers to L-G Kiran Bedi as a 'Demon'; Bedi hits back