Never intended to blame Centre for fin mess: Puducherry CM

Chief Minister N Rangasamy today said he never intended to blame the Centre for the current financial crisis the union territory was facing.
Winding up the debate on the budget in the assembly, he clarified on his remarks about the financial crisis made during his budget speech on July 15, he said he had only brought to the notice of the members the various causes of financial situation of the government.
"We will continue to ensure that the welfare schemes that sagged for a while would be enlivened and implemented without room for any delay. I would only be grateful to all members if they extend cooperation for realising the schemes," he said making it clear repeatedly that he never intended to blame the Centre.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition V Vaithilingam said the Centre was prepared to come to the help of Puducherry. However, the Chief Minister and other ministers should brief MPs and MLAs about the initiatives taken to get funds.
"The two Parliament members from here would also facilitate availability of funds from the Centre," he said.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanaswamy, MP, accused Rangasamy of charging the Centre with slashing grants and financial allocations though the fact was that the state Chief Minister had not placed before the Centre detailed plans and programmes.

Complimenting Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for securing Rs 17,000 crore more than the previous year plan allocation, he said Rangasamy on the other hand could manage to get only Rs 2,000 crore, which is Rs 1000 crore less than the previous year allotment.

He also accused Rangasamy of 'failure' to implement the promises made by him during the electioneering for the 2011 assembly polls.
"It is really mind boggling that the Chief Minister had dismissed more than 4,000 workers employed by the previous Congress regime in public sector undertakings and some departments immediately after coming to power in 2011," he said launching a rally by retrenched workers here.