7th Pay Commission: Grants from Centre to this state slashed from 90 pc to 26 pc?

Chief Minister V Narayanasamy Monday alleged that grants from the Centre to Puducherry had been slashed over the years from 90 per cent to 26 per cent now.

Distributing artificial limbs, wheel chairs and other equipment to differently abled persons here, he said the union territory was sanctioned 90 per cent of its budgetary proposals as Central grant some years ago.

This was brought down to 70 per cent and was now pegged at just 26 per cent. 

The government was however managing the fiscal situation efficiently and no scheme would be let to suffer for want of funds, he said.

He charged the Centre with not conceding his government's plea to sanction funds for its employees to meet the expenditure caused by implementation of the Central Pay Commission recommendations.

He alleged that the Centre had funds to aid the Delhi government in disbursing pension to its retired staff, but no such facility was made available to the union territory.

Narayanasamy, who has been at loggerheads with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi over various issues, made a veiled reference to her, saying that the government had come across several hurdles in implementation of schemes

However, the government was going ahead and implementing various schemes, especially for the differently abled,he said.

The artificial limbs and other equipment were bought from funds provided by Rajya Sabha member from Puducherry N. Gokulakrishnan and also in association with National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities.

Welfare Minister M Kandasamy, who presided, said the government had introduced four per cent reservation quota for differently abled people, in the government sector here.

Meanwhile, a communication from the Assembly secretary said the Puducherry assembly has been reconvened to meet on March 2.

Official sources said the session has been reconvened by the Speaker V Vaithilingam.

The Chief Minister would present an interim budget for fiscal 2019-20 and there would be no formal customary address by the Lt Governor, though this is the first session of the current year (2019).