Puducherry Assembly passes Vote on Account, adjourns House sine die

The Puducherry Assembly adjourned sine die on Wednesday after passing the Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill tabled by Chief Minister N Rangasamy with Rs 3,613.66 crore allocated for five months from April to August of the upcoming financial year.

Over the course of a two-hour long session, the House adopted the Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill, which earmarked funds for the five months from April to August 2022 and also approved supplementary demand for grants for financial year 2021-2022.

As soon as the Chief Minister tabled the Vote on Account Bill, members belonging to both the ruling and opposition blocks raised several issues concerning the woes of unemployed youth and availability of infrastructure, such as roads and health care facilities. Members of both the treasury and opposition benches expressed concern over 'rampant' availability of ganja and other narcotics in Puducherry and also unemployed youth falling prey to drug peddlers.

Government Whip A K D Arumugham wanted the territorial administration to create a separate cell in the police department under the head of a Superintendent of Police to handle cases relating to ganja.

Opposition DMK leader R Siva underscored the need for holding the Assembly session for a considerable number of days instead of having it only for a day. He also said the government should also ensure that a full-fledged budget was passed instead of adopting a Vote on Account.

Earlier, the members belonging to the DMK and Congress in the opposition block registered strong protests against holding the session for a day and also against adopting a Vote on Account without presenting a full-fledged budget. All the opposition legislators staged a walk-out from the House flaunting placards stating their demands.

However, all of them returned to the House a few minutes later to participate in the proceedings.

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