Puducherry: The Assembly passed on Monday, at the end of a three-hour debate, Bills effecting amendments to the Pondicherry Municipalities Act and the Village and Commune Panchayats Act 1973, which will earmark subjects to the local bodies. Chief Minister N. Rangasamy tabled the Bills earlier.

Wrapping up the debate, the Chief Minister said that his Government had conducted civic polls keeping with the dream of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to restore democracy at the grassroots-level.

Mr. Rangasamy said that there could have been some practical hurdles and teething trouble in the working of the elected bodies, but the present amendments to the Acts earmarked specific subjects to the municipalities and panchayats to ensure statutory authority to them.

The municipalities would be entrusted with powers to evolve plans for economic development and social justice and also to concentrate on the 18 subjects now available through the present legislation. Similarly, the village and commune panchayats would be given the responsibilities to look after 29 subjects.

He said all views and suggestions the members had made during the debate earlier would be accommodated, after careful consideration. Initiating the debate on the Bills, S.P. Sivakumar (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) said that it had never been the intention of the legislators to intervene in the powers of the local bodies, as had been wrongly propagated by some sections of the councillors. He said that both the legislators and municipal councillors should function in tandem to improve the lot of the people.

K. Lakshminarayanan (Puducherry Munnetra Kazhagam) and A. Anbalagan (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) urged the enforcement of Anti Defection Law also to cover the municipal councillors and chairmen. Presently, the law was only governing the Members of Parliament and legislators.

R.Rajaraman and S.P. Sivakumar (both from the DMK) suggested that one of the three legislators to be appointed soon as nominated MLAs could be from Karaikal district.

A. M .H. Nazeem and V.M.C. Sivakumar (DMK) wanted conferment of powers on village panchayat presidents and there should be no anomalies in availability of powers to councillors and legislators.

R. Viswanathan (Communist Party of India) wanted constitution of State Finance Commission through a legislation and not through a notification as had been done now.

Ohm Sakthi Segar (AIADMK) N. Anandhu (PMC), R. Anandaraman (PMK), A. Marimuthu and J. Narayanasamy (Independents) participated in the debate and presented their views.

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