Date:12/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051257550600.htm

Tamil Nadu

Separate UT status for Karaikal sought

Special Correspondent

KARAIKAL: Karaikal Struggle Group (KSG), a non-political group and fighting for separate Union Territory status for Karaikal region in the Union Territory of Puducherry, has reiterated its demand for a separate UT status for Karaikal region with a legislature following a resolution passed by the Puducherry Legislative Assembly on May 7 demanding the Centre to confer Statehood to Puducherry Union Territory that includes regions of Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.

S. P. Selvashanmugham, lawyer and convenor of KSG and president of Puducherry Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Legal Action Committee, on Saturday sent a representation to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister that if the Centre took any policy decision to grant Statehood to Puducherry alone, the precedent of Goa (1987) might also be followed retaining Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam as one Union Territory according to the spirit and meaning of the Treaty of Cession of May 28, 1956.