Narayanasamy wants ban on New Year eve celebration in Pondy in view of pandemic

In his virtual press conference here, the former Chief Minister said every New Year eve n witnesses not than 10,000 people from within Puducherry and also from other States thronging the seashore here. ''Coronavirus and also its new variant Omicron have been holding the people to ransom in several States. Bigger States like Karnataka have banned the celebration of New Year. Consequently, people will make a beeline to Puducherry and be a super-spreader of the virus,.'' he said and wanted the ban on celebration.

Narayanasamy wanted the government of Puducherry to reconsider the plan to hold the National Youth Festival here for five days from January 12. ''I am not able to understand why the Centre and Puducherry government have selected the relatively small Puducherry to hold the festival. Not less than 8,000 people are expected to visit Puducherry from different States for the festival,'' he said. Narayanasamy feared that the festival would lead to the spread of coronavirus fast and open the gates for the outbreak of Omicron although so far Omicron has not hit Puducherry. The former Chief Minister said the government should take into consideration the health and safety of the people when decisions to hold festivals are taken. He said the move to use the now-closed AFT Mill as a Covid Care Centre is a wrong decision. ''The Indira Gandhi Government Medical College Hospital which has served as a Covid hospital has three additional blocks where the patients can be accommodated,'' he said.

He said the alleged replacement of gold ornaments pledged by customers with the Puducherry Cooperative Urban Bank with fakes has struck at the root of the faith of the people in the bank. ''Two officials of the bank have been arrested in the wake of unearthing of the scam. The police should crack down on the accused without bowing to any pressure to hush up the case,'' he said.

He alleged that the Rangasamy-headed NDA government was siphoning off funds from several departments and schemes to distribute flood relief to families holding ration cards.