The territorial Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution unanimously urging the Center to grant statehood to Puducherry after Chief Minister N Rangasamy made a strong case in favour.
The resolution was first tabled as a private members’ resolution by the opposition DMK and an independent member G Nehru seeking statehood for Puducherry ‘to overcome various handicaps and obstacles facing the elected government now that Puducherry was a territory of the Union’.
The Chief Minister, who rose to respond to the resolution, said that “(the resolution) becomes an official resolution.”
With all previously speaking members extending their support for the statehood resolution, Chairman R Selvam announced that it was treated as an official resolution and unanimously adopted.
All members, regardless of party affiliation and nominated and independent members, stood up and banged on desks in joy that the resolution passed unanimously and as an official resolution.
Earlier, DMK members R Siva, AMH Nazeem, Annibal Kennedy and R Senthil Kumar and independent member G Nehru tabled the resolution urging the Center to grant statehood to Puducherry.
It was also suggested that the Chief Minister lead a delegation of all legislators to meet with the Prime Minister, the Union Home Secretary and other Union Ministers to urge the Center to grant the demand.
The Chief Minister, speaking after hearing views expressed by members on the need for statehood, said that “the demand for statehood is reiterated not for administrative purposes, but is a matter of our law.” .
He said he would lead a team of all lawmakers to meet with the Prime Minister, the Union Home Secretary and other central ministers to press the lawsuit. “We will also meet members of parliament from parties that support our call for a state in Delhi,”
Rangasamy said he was fully confident that “statehood would be achieved during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.”
“Statehood is the only solution to end all the current struggles and obstacles that the elected government has faced because Puducherry is a union territory,” Rangasamy said, adding that “the goal of statehood is very close.”
He also thanked all legislators without exception for their support of the demand for statehood.
Speaking earlier, Home Minister A Namassivayam said “Statehood is a must and there was no second opinion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (to which he belongs), which is part of the NDA government led by the AINRC here to look up the State condition.”
He said statehood resolutions have been adopted 13 times in the Assembly in the past since 1987.
He further said that “Most of the time the Assembly resolutions were not sent to the Center because the officials who should have sent them to the Union Home Secretary were letting the resolutions gather dust in Puducherry. The officials feared that once Puducherry became a state, the powers of the bureaucrats would be hit.”
Namassivayam said that as far as the BJP was concerned, he was always in favor of statehood for Puducherry.
He said that the NDA government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi always favorably conceded all the demands of the AINRC-led coalition government in Puducherry.
“I am fully confident that the Center will accept our statehood resolution,” Namassivayam said, adding that the Center had already allowed the Puducherry government to use the sprawling site at Sedarapet and Karasur villages here for rapid industrialization.
He said that “we have requested the Center to amend the Business Rules related to the Puducherry government, include Puducherry in the Central Finance Commission and enhance the financial powers of the Chief Minister and the elected government here so that decisions can be made quickly and the Development in various sectors could be achieved through the allocation of funds.
At one point, the independent member Nehru wanted to speak on the issue of statehood. When the Speaker would not allow him to do so, Nehru organized a House strike. He, however, returned to the Chamber a few minutes later.
