Amit Shah assures Puducherry of reducing unemployment rate in the UT

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday assured people of Puducherry of reducing the unemployment rate in the Union Territory to less than 40 per cent if National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections.

"About 75 per cent of Puducherry youth are unemployed, if you vote NDA government, we will reduce the unemployment rate to less than 40 per cent," Shah said while addressing an election rally in Puducherry

Shah also cornered the erstwhile Congress government in Puducherry saying it did "petty politics" on implementing Central government schemes.

He lambasted at Narayanasamy's government and alleged that the chief minister was engaged in rampant corruption in Puducherry. "At least 15,000 crore was sent by the Central government for the development of the Union Territory."

"The Modi government has given a budget of 20 thousand crore rupees to overcome the shortcomings of the important infrastructure of fisheries," Amit Shah said adding that Puducherry is going to get the most benefit from it.

"Has this money reached your villages?" he questioned the crowd.

He also alleged that Narayanasamy's government sent 15,000 crore rupees to the Gandhi family's service in Delhi.

Raising the issue of local body elections, he said, "For 14 years, the elections were not held here even after the High Court orders. Because they feared that the BJP's lotus would blossom here if elections were held."

The central government of PM Narendra Modi has done a lot of work for the development of Puducherry, he said. Puducherry has been connected to Bengaluru and Hyderabad as part of the UDAN scheme to promote tourism inside Puducherry, he added.

"Some days back PM Modi has opened a huge opportunity for the development of the people living on the seashore by performing Bhoomi Pujan of a small port," he said adding that this port was closed since 2009, which is now starting very soon.

"You should help form the NDA government and I want to assure the people of Puducherry that when it will be 75 years of independence (in 2022), the BJP government will do the work of providing pure drinking water from the tap to every poor house here," he said.

Regarding the BJP's plan for Puducherry, Amit Shah said, "the Prime Minister has spoken about making Puducherry the BEST. The four words of B- Business Hub E-Education Hub S- Spiritual Hub T- Tourism Hub- BEST are the foundation of Puducherry's development."

Based on this, the BJP government will make Puducherry the jewel of the country, he promised to the public ahead of assembly elections here.

While ending his speech, Shah made an apology to people for not speaking in the Tamil language.

"The Prime Minister said that even when he was Chief Minister, he could not learn Tamil, he is Prime Minister now, yet he said that I want to learn Tamil and talk to Tamil brothers in the Tamil language," Shah added.

Polling for 30 assembly seats in Puducherry will be held on April 6. Of the 30 Assembly seats, five are reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates. As many as 10,02,589 electors will choose the candidates for the 15 legislative Assembly of Puducherry.