Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy informed the eighth meeting of the NITI Aayog Governing Council on Saturday that his government would set up an IT park in the Union Territory to create job opportunities for young people.
Keeping in mind the national strategies and the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ (Developed India) 2047, the Puducherry government has produced a vision document to raise the GSDP of the Union Territory to USD 50 million by 2047.
In his speech at the meeting in New Delhi, Rangasamy said that through the development of the Karasur industrial estate, around Rs 5,000 crore is expected to be invested through private investment over a period of five years and around Rs 10,000 people benefit directly or indirectly.
The Chief Minister said it is a challenging task for line departments to determine whether government welfare measures reach their intended beneficiaries without theft.
To overcome this arduous task, a centralized database called ‘Unified Data Hub’ has been developed which would be combined with ‘Aadhaar Data Vault’ with features of common inline validation, deduplication and data cross-referencing that help in smooth service delivery. faster as well as plugging leaks in the system.
He told the meeting that the Puducherry administration had requested the Tamil Nadu government to provide 395 acres of land to expand the Puducherry airport. “We have emphasized that the expansion of the airport in Puducherry would not only increase the number of tourists visiting Puducherry for both spiritual and medical tourism, but also facilitate industrial upgrading and development in and around the adjacent districts of Tamil Nadu.”
Rangasamy said that spiritual tourism is now going mainstream and occupies a significant segment of international tourist arrivals. At present, UT receives 19 lakh incoming tourists annually, including 1.5 lakh foreigners with an eight percent average growth rate every year.
With regard to the empowerment of women, the Chief Minister referred to the granting of monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to female householders living below the poverty line between the age group of 21-55 which was put launched from January this year.
Rangasamy said the government is encouraging the registration of property in women’s names and a 50 per cent concession on stamp duty is also provided.
He noted that the UT administration has been constantly requesting the Indian government to include in the terms of reference of the Finance Commission by appropriately amending Article 280(3) of the Constitution in regards to the word ‘State’ . Special reference may be made to the Finance Commission to include the Union Territory of Puducherry with the legislature.
He advocated for the Union Territory of Puducherry to be included in the proposed 16th Committee on Finance.
Rangasamy also urged the Center to include Puducherry in the category of ‘Financial Assistance to States for Capital Investments’. “We have been constantly making requests to the Union Finance and Home Ministries for special central assistance with a total project cost of Rs 2,328 crore to create five major capital infrastructure facilities at Puducherry,” he said. .
The Chief Minister also drew the meeting’s attention to the dilemma facing the government in allocating funds for centrally sponsored schemes (CSS). “The dilemma arises when Puducherry is not treated as a full State or as a Union Territory. Puducherry does not fall within the scope of the Finance Commission’s recommendation, as it does not fall under the definition of ‘State’. ‘.
It requested the Center to restore the funding pattern for CSS to 100 percent for the Puducherry Union Territory to ease the financial burden.
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