Date:12/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051252890300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Karaikal group reiterates demand for UT status

Special Correspondent

Forum convener writes to Manmohan, Sonia Gandhi

KARAIKAL: The Karaikal Struggle Group, a non-political organisation, has reiterated its demand for Union Territory status for the Karaikal region, in the wake of the Puducherry Assembly adopting a resolution seeking Statehood for Puducherry.

S.P. Selvashanmugham, convener of the group and president of the Puducherry Cauvery delta farmers’ legal action committee, has sent a representation to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister. In it, he argued that if the Centre decided to grant Statehood to Puducherry alone, the precedent of Goa (1987) might be followed, with Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam being retained a Union Territory according to the Treaty of Cession concluded by India and France on May 28, 1956.

The former French Settlements such as Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam were clubbed together and made a Union Territory under the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 (Act No.20 of 1963). Among the four, Karaikal was the next big town to Puducherry, he said.

Mr. Selvashanmugham charged the Puducherry government with meting out step-motherly treatment to Karaikal. The concessions and rights guaranteed under the Treaty of Cession were also denied to the people of Karaikal.