Statehood demand will be financially disadvantageous to Pondy'

: Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy today said persistent demands for statehood by Chief Minister N Rangasamy would be financially disadvantageous
to the union territory as government would find it difficult to mobilise funds locally.
"In the event of Puducherry becoming a state, it will be a struggle for the government to mobilise funds locally to meet 70 per cent of budgetary requirements as the Centre would meet only the remaining 30 per cent of the required portion in the budget," he told reporters here.
On the other hand, statehood with Special Category Status would be more advantageous to the union territory. Understanding this, Congress had been pitching for it,he said.

Narayanasamy said the yardstick of there being a threat to the union territory would be applied if the union territory were granted this status.
He wondered how Rangasamy's contention that the elected government had no powers to implement any schemes without the Centre's nod could be true when the Chief Minister had appointed chairmen for various Public Sector Units.

He said progress of work on various central government funded schemes was very poor as recently assessed by the State Chief Secretary. These included the Rs 162 crore underground drainage scheme, a Rs 28 crore scheme to construct houses for the poor and the Rs 50 crore housing project for AdiDravidars.

He rejected Rangasamy's charge that he had not done enough in getting funds sanctioned for the union territory, saying the territorial government was not utilising the funds for various developmental programmes.
Instead of procuring Rs 3,000 crore by projecting appropriate plans, government had succeeded in getting only Rs 2000 crore for want of schemes and programmes for 2013-14 fiscal, he said.
"For fiscal 2011-2012 the Centre had sanctioned Rs 1,289 crore, 46 per cent of the projected outlay of Rs 2,750 crore for Puducherry," he said.
Narayanasamy, who represents the union territory in the Lok Sabha, said as much as Rs 18 crore had been sanctioned from out of MP Local Area Development Fund.

On withdrawal of the ordinance on convicted lawmakers, he said the Centre had withdrawn it in response to the 'strong opinion' expressed by AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi and the public outcry against it.
Narayanasamy alleged the BJP was indulging in a double game on the ordinance issue and shedding 'crocodile tears' over it.