Chief Minister N. Rangasamy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi on Friday and urged him to ensure that the Union territory was provided with abundant assistance for its development even as he reiterated the demand for Statehood.
At the meeting that lasted for around 20 minutes, he also submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister listing out various demands, including a waiver of debt.
Sources said that the Chief Minister requested Mr. Modi to write off the loans to the tune of Rs.6,000 crores that the Puducherry government had taken from the Centre over the years.
Mr. Rangasamy also sought the Centre’s cooperation in sanction of copious assistance for promotion of the tourism sector under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode in the Union Territory.
He also demanded the inclusion of Puducherry under the Central Finance Commission.
He sought the permission of the Centre to sell 56 acres of land belonging to the Puducherry government-owned Anglo French Textiles (AFT) Mills at Pattanur near here to generate sufficient funds for running the mill. Sources said the Prime Minister gave a patient hearing and promised to look into the demands.
The Chief Minister also met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and placed the request for total waiver of loans and interest as the Union Territory had been facing a lot of problems due to increase in debt burden. Puducherry MP R. Radhakrishnan, Welfare Minister P. Rajavelu and AINRC MLA V. Bhalan accompanied the Chief Minister.
Mr. Rangasamy also met Union Minister for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.
