Southern States - Pondicherry   

Civic issues may dominate budget session

By Our Staff Reporter

Pondicherry March 26. The Lt. Governor, K. R. Malkani, will address the budget session of the Assembly at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow. The Chief Minister, N. Rangasamy, who is in charge of Finance, will present the budget at 2.30 p.m. on Friday.

Mr. Malkani is addressing the session for the first time after assuming office on July last year.

Mr. Rangasamy would be presenting his second successive budget.

The total strength of the Assembly is 30. The party-wise break up (excluding the Speaker) is: Congress (16), Independents supporting the Government from outside (2), TMC (1), DMK (7), AIADMK (2), BJP (1).

Opposition keeping powder dry

Some of the major political parties which were virtually keeping a stony silence all along have now come out with harsh criticism against the Ministry some 24 hours before the commencement of the budget session.

The parties which have no representative in the Assembly have, however, left no stone unturned to criticise the government and exhausted all modes of agitation to gain its attention. Not a day passes without the parties issuing statements, censuring the government and seeking redress of various grievances.

The AIADMK legislator, A. Anbalagan, has been busying himself on all occasions to take cudgels against the government. He has brought to the fore several issues such as garbage accumulation, mosquito menace, discrimination among the regions in making available medical relief to patients with critical ailments, admission to professional colleges, modalities in issuing tenders for certain important projects etc.

Whenever he convened press meetings, it was always a solo affair. He feared none and unmasked several details sparing no department.

Amusingly enough, the ruling Congress party has presented suggestions to the Chief Minister on various aspects of the measures required for the poor and the have-nots and also urged that the Value Added Tax normally expected from April 1 be put off in view of its cascading effect on the economy as a whole.

Several issues confronted by students, industrial workers, government staff, toddy and arrack merchants and other sections have already been focussed through agitations, dharnas and picketings recently.

The posting of chairman for a statutory body was a recent achievement of the government while nothing had been known about the fixing of three persons under the Nominated MLA facility.

Garbage cleaning and mosquito eradication have been on the top of agenda for the government machinery here.

There were also occasions for certain political parties themselves resorting to spraying of insecticide to bring mosquito menace under control although the programme was launched to show the delay on the part of the machinery concerned to control mosquitoes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Civic issues may dominate budget session
• Poll petition against Janakiraman dismissed
• Fuel station commissioned
• Rs. 44.49 cr. for agriculture in Annual Credit Plan
• The literary lineage continues
• Will Rangasamy Govt. quit on VAT issue, asks Janakiraman

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu