'Construction of fishing harbour in Karaikal on'

Pondicherry, Aug 1: The Pondicherry administration is expediting the construction of the fishing harbour in Karaikal, Chief MMinsiter N Rangasamy told the Legislative Assembly today.

Answering a question, Minister for Education M O H F Shajahan said the Centre had allocated Rs 34.06 crore for the project in August 2005, following which the construction work began on February 28 this year.

DMK member V M C Sivakumar, who posed the question pointed out that the fishing harbour scheme for Karaikal was sanctioned much earlier. The foundation stone was laid in 1981, he said and asked why all these years there was no initiative to start the construction.

Chief Minister N Rangasamy intervened and said that soon after his government took over it had taken initiatives. The work was in progress and the harbour would be completed soon, he added.

To another question, Mr Rangasamy said a scheme to convert sea water into drinking water would be taken up in Karaikal region also as the government was committed to provide pure drinking water to all the regions of the Union Territory.

UNI