Debate begins in Pondicherry

Puducherry: The issue of whether the Union Territory of Puducherry should be granted complete statehood or statehood with special category status has once again resulted in a heated debate in the political arena here. Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, who favoured special category status, made his stance clear that he had no issues in seeking statehood if a majority of the MLAs are not in favour of seeking special category status.

A decision would be taken only after consulting all Opposition parties, he told the State Assembly.

For the last few years all major political parties in Puducherry have been urging the Centre for allotting statehood status for the Union Territory as it would help get more powers to the elected government.

The issue of statehood had been discussed with utmost priority once again after the continuous power struggle between the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and the elected government that has led to serious issues in the administration.

What major political parties say

Puducherry Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V. Narayanasamy said that he preferred statehood with special category status to ensure that the Union Territory gets more funds.

“States like Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were seeking status of states with special category though they do not fall into the merits of guidelines to merit the states with special category status” said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister also mentioned that the Congress president Rahul Gandhi had promised to grant special category status if the party came to power in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Supporting the idea of getting more funds to the Union Territory, leader of Opposition N. Rangasamy said that achieving statehood status can alone solve many problems.

“There is no difference of opinion on getting more funds to the Union Territory or getting more powers to the elected government. All the problems will be sorted out only when the statehood is achieved and we should fight for that,” said the former Chief Minister.

He has also extended his party’s support to any step the government would take to urge Centre for statehood.

AIADMK legislature party leader A. Anbazhagan was also of the opinion that only statehood can solve the problems pertaining to the Union Territory.

He said the Chief Minister’s demand for special category status would only dilute the cause for getting more powers for an elected government.

The AIADMK leader pointed out that the Telugu Desam party in power had quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) since the Centre failed to grant statehood with special category status to Andhra Pradesh and it is rubbish to think that the Centre would grant the same to Puducherry.

“The Union Territory is at a juncture that it should regain democratic rights of the elected government for which statehood is a must. It is very important in a time when all decisions taken by the elected government are subject to approval by Lt Governor and Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said.

Welfare minister M Kandasamy suggested that a joint delegation of all legislators could leave for Delhi and persuade the Centre to grant statehood for Puducherry.

Can Pondy be granted special category status?

The special category status would be allocated to areas in India, which are historically disadvantaged as compared to others. The special category status is a classification suggested by the Fifth Finance Commission in 1969 to make the Central Government assist the development of backward states of India.

This decision to categorise the state under special category status was taken by the National Development Council (NDC), a body of the former Planning Commission.

Benefits of special category status include that the state should pay only a negligible part of excise and customs duties, income tax and corporate tax, and these states would get more funds not as loans but as grants from the Centre.

As the Chief Minster prefers special category status, major political parties including AINRC and AIADMK point out that Puducherry cannot be categorised under the special category criteria under the NDC parameters and, thus it is of no use in pushing the Centre for special category status.

On the other hand, senior Congress legislator and parliamentary secretary to Chief Minister K. Lakshminarayanan said that it is not impossible for Puducherry to get special category status.

“I personally prefer special category status because then only the state will get more funds. Since the Constitution does not have any provision for categorisation of any state as a Special Category Status (SCS) State, the Central government can take a decision on that. The NDC parameters can be changed, and thus the decision is up to the central government. Because of this only NDA government were able to offer special status for Andhra Pradesh,” Mr Lakshminarayanan told DC.

Problems of statehood for Puducherry

The Union territory, spread over a mere 492 square kms, has four disparate parts —Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam — all linked by a common history of French colonial rule.

Karaikal is about 150 km south of Pondicherry and Yanam about 850 km north-east of it, and Mahe is almost parallel to Pondicherry, 653 km away on the Kerala coast. All these four regions have no connection in common.

The Treaty of Accession of May 28, 1956, signed between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and S. Ostrorog, then French ambassador extraordinary in India, stipulates that the four former French establishments should remain centrally administered territories, retaining the special status which was in force prior to the de facto transfer on October 21, 1954.

When political parties comes together in support of statehood status, questions arise whether the regions of Mahe, Karaikkal and Yanam will be delinked from Puducherry or even if the states were linked together how will the government manage the resources and funds.

Independent MLA from Mahe region V. Ramachandran shared concerns of chances for Mahe region being avoided when Puducherry gets statehood status.

“Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy made it clear in the Assembly that the government would seek statehood status for Puducherry without changing its boundaries. Even if Puducherry gets statehood (though chances are less for that in near future) Mahe and Yanam region would suffer the most as these regions are too far from Puducherry and shares  totally different cultures. Chances are there for the regions to get avoided as we have only one constitution in Mahe and one in Yanam,” Mr Ramachandran told DC.

Another issue of concern is about the limited resources of Puducherry - whether the state will be able to survive without Central grants.

“The Centre had already limited the grants allotted to Puducherry to 25 per cent. Its resource base is very limited and GST came as another blow to the state. The Union Territory is facing an unusual financial crisis and the administration should seriously discuss the availability of resources before pushing for statehood,” said Ramachandran.

On the other hand, AIADMK legisture party leader A. Anbazhagan said that Puducherry has its own resources to collect the revenue.

“Excise duty alone comes to nearly '400 crore a year and GST had also helped Puducherry in collecting revenue. There was a hike of around '475 crore in revenue collection compared to last year after the implementation of GST. Puducherry administration can take actions to revive the industries here and we have enough resources if the government act wisely,” Mr Anbazhagan told DC.

“The most important thing is that an elected government should have complete power and can act independently,” he added.

Congress legistor Lakshminarayanan also said the Union Territory can easily gather its own funds.

“In this year’s budget the Union Territory’s own resources for the current year have been estimated at '4,570 crore (61 per cent). If it gets statehood status Puducherry will get 42 per cent grants from the Centre which is huge comparing to the 25 per cent allotted now. When Puducherry is included in Finance Commission it will have additional benefits also,” he said.

Apart from revenue from GST, excise and sales duty when it gets statehood the Union Territory would get a portion of Central excise, Customs and income tax duty, which will strengthen the financial status of the state, he added.

The senior Congress leader also suggested that all political parties should come together in the same platform to get the statehood status for Puducherry.