'PM's move to scrap NDC, an autocratic move'

Addressing a press conference here, Narayanasamy said the NDA government had started scrapping institutions which is functioning properly in the past and began with the Planning Commission. No funds could be provided to states without the permission of the Planning Commission, he said and alleged that to facilitate the Prime Minister announcing funds to states, the Planning Commission was scrapped and Niti Aayog is introduced. 

The issues of states pertaining to the law and order and finance used to be discussed in the NDC and with the move to scrap it, Mr Modi is trying to clip the voice of states, he charged. 

To a question, Narayanasamy said that it is an uncivilized act to attack the press whichever party it may be and added that this could not be accepted in a democratic country. ‘It is the duty of the government to give protection to the press and initiate stringent actions against the culprits. About the Puducherry administration registering cases against a Tamil weekly, Narayanasamy said that it amounts to strangulating the press freedom. 

He said after receiving complaints that life-saving drugs are not available at the Mannadipet PHC, he himself had visited it and inspected. It was found that anti-venom besides life-saving drugs are not there and medicines with expiry dates are being supplied to the patients, he alleged and said that he had issued a press statement then and wondered why the government had failed to file a case against him while filing one against the weekly which wrote about this. 

Maintaining that the Rangasamy government is a non-functioning one, Narayanasamy said in Puducherry earlier the people used to live in peace and communal harmony but the situation has changed in the past four-and-half years’ tenure of the N R Congress government.