Centre duty bound to ensure peace in country: Pondy CM

Talking to news persons here, Mr Narayanasamy alleged that the Central government had spoiled the peace in several states by bringing the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The bill was passed in both the houses of Parliament, despite warnings from different quarters, including political parties that it was against the Constitution.

In view of this, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya were burning now. The students has also taken up the issue and plunged into agitation, he said, adding that Home Minister Amit Shah had hinted of further amendment in the bill, if needed.

It is not known what sort of amendment would be made, the Chief Minister said and charged that without initiating any measures to tide over the economic slowdown, the rulers are busy canvassing for Jharkhand Assembly election.

Because of the economic slowdown, the state governments were not getting the required tax revenue.

As far as Puducherry was concerned, the sale of vehicles had come down drastically and the UT was not getting adequate tax revenue. On the other hand the central government has not provided the GST compensation and other financial support for the last five months.

This year, the government had remitted Rs 800 crore to the RBI towards the dues of open market borrowed by the previous NR Congress government with interest, Narayanasamy said.

A recent video conference of the finance ministers of different states decided to meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and pressurize for the release of the dues, he said, adding that accordingly they met her recently in which Puducherry Revenue Minister Shajahan took part.

However, since, nothing had materialised so far, in another video conference held on Monday, it was decided to rake up the issue in the GST Council meeting to be held on December 18, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister also said that ten days ago he met President Ram Nath Kovind and invited him to visit Puducherry. Accepting his invitation, Kovind will visit Puducherry on December 23 on a two-day tour.

Meanwhile, the Puducherry Students Federation (PSF) has resolved to organise state-wide agitations demanding the withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and human chain against the new education policy.

The federation also decided to resort to a novel agitation to draw the attention of President, who is visiting the UT on Dec 23.

A resolution to this effect was adopted in the office bearers meeting of PSF on Sunday, according to a PSF release on Monday.