Ramachandran praises Vaithilingam

Puducherry, Sep 10 (UNI) Former Puducherry Chief Minister and Speaker M D R Ramachandran of the Congress today said Chief Minister V Vaithilingam coming out openly with the financial requirements, clearly showed the transparent nature of his administration.

Greeting the new ministers, Mr Ramachandran told a press conference that the Chief Minister, by providing a subsidy of Rs 30 for LPG cylinders and Rs 250 as pocket money to the school students, cleared his intention to uplift the poor.

Replying to a question on statehood status for Puducherry, Mr Ramachandran said after the territorial Assembly adopted a resolution in this regard, the question had become meaningless.

He clarified that special category state status was ideal for Puducherry. ''The B2 status for Puducherry town was denied several times earlier before being granted and the same decision would be there in the special category state status issue also in the coming days,'' he added.

He said he has to part with his Mannadipet constituency from where he had contested seven elections, as the constituency was allotted to the PMK in the alliance set up and he had rejected the party's offer to contest from any other constituency.

He would continue his public life and do whatever he could to safeguard the interest of the people here, he added.

To a question whether he would contest the Lok Sabha elections, if the party high command asks him to do so, Mr Ramachandran said no disciplined politician could reject the direction of the party.

UNI PAB GL KP1416