Swearing in of new ministers delayed in Puducherry

Puducherry, Jun 8: The swearing in of new ministers in Puducherry was delayed today (June 8) as the clearance sought from the Centre as a statutory formality had not come through even two hours after the scheduled time.

Puducherry Chief Minister Rangasamy, who was waiting in his chamber on the Assembly premises for clearance from the Centre, said, "We have been waiting for the Centre's approval of my list. It is expected any moment. Although it was originally planned to have the swearing in at 10.30 am, there was actually delay in getting the Centre''s green signal.

"We will however have the induction today itself and it would be in the afternoon as the Centre's communication will come in the next one hour or so."

Rangasamy had yesterday submitted the list containing the names of the new ministers to Lt Governor Iqbal Singh for expansion of his 23-day-old All India NR Congress Ministry.

The Lt Governor would forward the list to the Union Home Ministry and in turn the Home Ministry would place the list before the President for final approval and the list would return to Puducherry through the Home Ministry to the Lt Governor's desk.

Rangasamy also said the intervention of the inauspicious ''raghukalam'' time between 12 noon and 1.30 pm today meant the government did not stick to its plan to go ahead with the swearing in in case the Centre''s nod was available in the meanwhile.

PTI