Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Monday charged the Centre with sanctioning a very poor grant which, he said, was peanuts to take up rejuvenation and development of water bodies in Puducherry and Karaikal regions.
Tabling a resolution during the special session of the assembly and highlighting the steps taken by the territorial government for conservation of drinking water and for harvesting rainwater, he said the government had sought Rs 2,719 crore for the improvement of the tanks and lakes in the regions and got only Rs 2 crore.
"The Centre has only earmarked Rs 2 crore in response to our presentation of the estimates', he said adding that this is peanuts and would be insufficient to take up the work," he said.
Although the union territory did not face any alarming situation on the water front, the future could not be taken for grant, hence all preventive steps for judicious use of water were being implemented here, Narayanasamy said.
Earlier, all the legislators belonging to the opposition AINRC, AIADMK and the BJP staged a walkout to protest against the government making available copies of the resolutions on water management and a few other issues.
AIADMK legislature party leader A Anbalagan, who tore up the copy of the resolution before staging a walkout, said "the government is taking the opposition legislators for granted. The time given to us to go through the resolutions is too short and we cannot voice our views in the House proceedings were scheduled for 9.30 am.
He said he was at a loss to understand on the need to have a special session of the House.
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All the opposition members returned to House after 20 minutes to participate in the proceedings.
The resolution on water conservation was adopted unanimously at the end of a detailed debate.