Full budget for Puducherry after Centre earmarks Rs 1,500 cr, says Chief Minister

He added that the Puducherry Assembly will have a brief twoday session from March 30. A vote on account would be moved for allocation of funds for the first few months of the 2017-2018 fiscal, he said. 

Narayanasamy who returned to Puducherry from Delhi on Saturday after meeting the Central Ministers to push the plea of Puducherry in getting approval of the Centre for various developmental projects, said that a MoU was inked on March 15 in Delhi between the Puducherry Port and Chennai Port Trust to develop the Puducherry port as a satellite port for export import activities.

Stating that the port would go on stream at the end of April he said that the port here would be able to transact 4 lakh ton cargo in the first year of its operation and this would increase every year subsequently. Puducherry government would net a revenue of around Rs 400 crores every year once the satellite port becomes functional, he said. Nearly 3,000 persons would benefit by the satellite port project, added Narayanasamy. 

Talking about the dredging operations, the chief Minister said, “While Puducherry will bear the cost of dredging in the first year of operations, Chennai Port will take up the responsibility from second year.” He requested the Union Minister for Shipping to provide assistance to the Union Territory for dredging operations. 

Stating that Puducherry has sought 100MW more from the Central pool at concessional rate, Narayanasamy claimed that Union Power Minister has agreed to consider the demand favourably. He also said that NLC would install solar panels on Puducherry coastline to generate 2 MW of power as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. “A scheme to install solar panels in households with the support of Centre is also in the offing,” announced Narayanasamy. 

He said that Air services from Puducherry would restart soon with Spice Jet showing interest in Puducherry, Tirupathi, Hyderabad sector. Air Odisha has shown interest in Chennai, Puducherry, Salem, Bangalore route, he said and added that Puducherry is also studying feasibility of starting air services to major cities in the south.

Senior Congress leader and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Sunday said that the outcome of Assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh should serve as a lesson for the Congress. Talking to reporters here after returning from New Delhi, the Congress Chief Minister said “The party leaders should sit together and evolve effective strategy to develop the party taking the Uttar Pradesh Assembly result as a lesson.” However, he took strong exception to the BJP forming government in Manipur and Goa. “BJP itself did not have the majority, but had roped in other parties to project the majority to form the government,” he said.