CPI demands resignation of Pondy Minister

Puducherry, Mar 20 (UNI) Communist Party of India (CPI) state Secretary and MLA Na Ra Kalainathan, today demanded the resignation of Education Minister M O H F Shajahan, in the wake of police registering cases against him last night.

Addressing a press conference here, he said a fair and free inquiry would not be possible with Mr Shajahan in power and hence, if he failed to resign on his own, AICC should intervene and remove him from power.

After the inquiry, if he was found innocent, he could be reinstated, he suggested.

The CPI had adopted the same stand in the case of Health Minister E Valsaraj, against whom cases were registered by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption police, he added.

Condemning AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa's and State Secretary A Anbazhagan's demands to dismiss the Puducherry government, Mr Kalainathan said dismissing a democratically elected government using Article 356 of the Constitution, was totally against democracy and also anti-people, and the CPI would never support such actions.

Demanding that the entrance examination for admissions to professional courses in the Union Territory should be abolished on the lines of Tamil Nadu, he alleged that a section of the people were earning a lot of money by taking entrance exam coaching classes.

He said eight party representatives, including national council member R Viswanathan and himself, would attend the party's national conference in Hyderabad from March 23 to 27. A photo exhibition on the liberation of Puducherry from the French colonialism would also be held there, he added.

UNI PAB GKT BDP ND1336