Date:25/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/25/stories/2006082506431200.htm

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House nod for Puducherry Bill

Special Correspondent

Unanimous support to the move in the Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Thursday approved the Bill to rename Pondicherry as Puducherry. With this, the decks have been cleared to give effect to a resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly in 1980. The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill on Monday.

Introduced by Union Minister of State for Home S. Regupathy, the Pondicherry (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2006, was passed without much ado.

Demand for full statehood

The discussion, which took place in Tamil, saw some members seeking full statehood to the Union Territory. ]

The lone member from Pondicherry, M. Ramadass (Pattali Makkal Katchi), said the Union Territory had waited far too long to revert to its old name and the renaming should be notified at the earliest.

M. Appadurai (Communist Party of India) demanded full-fledged statehood for Pondicherry, while Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's A. Krishnaswamy dwelt on the steps taken by his party in getting the Union Territory its original identity.

Santosh Gangwar (Bharatiya Janata Party) said instead of the piece-meal approach, the Government should in one stroke revert to the historic names of places and address similar demands.

Other who spoke included N.S.V. Chitthan (Congress), P. Mohan (CPI-M), Ganesh Singh (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and Shailendra Kumar (Samajwadi Party).