Congress legislator praises AINRC government

Opposition Congress legislator Malladi Krishna Rao today sprang a surprise during the debate on the motion of thanks to the Lt Governor for his address in the asssembly, by praising the AINRC government for the steps it has been taking to improve the lot of the poor and homeless sections.
Rao, elected from Yanam segment, pointed out that he was extremely glad to see that the Lt Governor Lt General (retired) A K Singh had been distinguishing himself by prompt clearance of all the files placed before him without delay.
The member also pointed out that the Puducherry government's scheme to sanction Rs four lakh to each of the poor families of the scheduled castes to convert their huts into concrete houses "is an unparalleled scheme and first of its kind in the country as a whole."

He said it was the option of the people of Yanam that the government should supply only rice without modifying the scheme for payment of cash as had been done in Puducherry and Karaikal. "People want rice only and not cash payment and hence this scheme is of help to the people there," he said.
Speaker V Sabapathy appreciated the member's words of praise for the government and asked the members belonging to the opposition AIADMK not to intervene when AIADMK legislator Om Sakthi Segar rose to say a few words.
Welfare and Tourism Minister P.Rajavelu also said Rao was expressing his views appreciating the schemes and functioning of the government and hence there should be no intervention by any of the members from other parties in the opposition.

Rao requested the Chief Minister to persuade the Centre to bring Union Territory of Puducherry within the ambit of the Fourteenth Finance Commission so that Puducherry would also be entitled to get 42 per cent of allocation of funds from the Central pool as had been done for other States.
He also urged government to ensure that utmost care was exercised while proposing to adopt the Goods and Services Tax Act in Puducherry as he feared that there was possibility of loss of revenue and the Centre should be persuaded to reimburse Puducherry for the loss in case GST is enforced.

The other congress members were seen silently listening as the legislator was praising the AINRC government.