The Puducherry Maanila Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (PMMMK) has sought the intervention of Lieutenant-Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan in fulfilling the constitutional requirements, including conduct of local body polls, by the Puducherry government.
In a memorandum to the Lieutenant-Governor, president of PMMMK and former MP M. Ramadass said the Union Territory has conducted local body elections only once in the last 56 years. The last local body elections were held in 2006, the memorandum said. When the State Election Commission was gearing up to hold local body elections in 2021, the move was stayed by the Madras High Court with a direction to conduct the polls after reserving seats to OBCs.
Following the order, the government in December 2021 appointed a single member commission to look into the reservation issue and to submit a report within six months. The mandated work was not yet completed. In the absence of elected local bodies, he said, grass root democracy has not taken shape in the Union Territory. It was imperative on the part of the government to hold the local body polls, he said.
The Puducherry government has also failed to reconstitute the State Level Commission for Backward Classes after 2018. A constitutional body has been allowed to lapse. Consequently, many requests /complaints /representations submitted by the public to the commission remain unheard of and unattended to without a regular chairman and members, he said.
Mr. Ramadass also requested the Lt Governor to ensure implementation of the Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and constitution of the board of governors of the Puducherry Technological University.
The memorandum also stressed on the need for upgradation of Puducherry’s status as a State. The Puducherry Assembly has passed 14 resolutions demanding Statehood, the memorandum pointed out.
