Special Pondy Assembly session today

The session is expected to last for a day and  it will be stormy as the Opposition NR Congress, AIADMK and BJP members will strongly oppose the adoption of the resolution against the CAA. It may be noted that Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, citing Union Territories Act,  in a letter to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had stated that the Assembly has no power to adopt  a resolution against the CAA. She also pointed out that the issue is under adjudication before the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday four MLAs staged a walk out from the Smart City Advisory Committee meeting chaired by PWD Minister A Namassivayam protesting the absence of Chief Secretary Ashwini Kumar, who is also the president of Smart City project.Namassivayam convened the meeting to discuss various issues pertaining to the smart city development. As the meeting began, Chief Secretary informed the Minister that the Lt Governor has summoned him and he will be back in a few minutes and left the hall. 

Even as Principal implementing officer Arjun Sharma was addressing the gathering, DMK legislature party leader R Siva wondered why only Rs 2 crore was utilised so far when the Union government had allocated Rs 120 crore.The Smart City project was sanctioned for Puducherry three years back and when several other states are on the verge of completion of the project, it is yet to be started here, he flayed.Three other legislators — Lakshminarayanan, Anbazhagan and Bhasker —intervened and said that the CS is the president for the project and is not seen in the meeting.A meeting sans the CS is a waste, they said and staged a walk out besides Siva, whose party was an ally of the Congress party.However, after some time, the Chief Secretary came to the meeting following which the legislators also returned.