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Ministry expansion put off in Pondicherry

Our correspondent in Pondicherry

With the Union home ministry having second thoughts about the constitutional propriety of a nominated member in a Territorial assembly being made minister, the expansion of Pondicherry's Congress-led coalition ministry, which has the breakaway Tamil Maanila Congress as partner, has been further delayed.

The swearing-in ceremony was slated for Monday, but Chief Minister P Shanmugam announced its postponement without assigning an alternative date.

"The ceremony has been put off as we have not received the required Central clearance yet," Shanmugam told newsmen in the Raj Niwas, after a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Dr Rajini Roy.

The pre-occupation of both the President and the prime minister with more important affairs could have been the cause for the delay, he said.

However, informed sources claim it was because the home ministry raised a question of constitutional propriety. As is known, V Balaji, the TMC nominee due for induction, is a nominated member, and home ministry officials have questions on the advisability of his becoming minister.

The Constitution provides for the President - read, Centre -- to clear the ministerial nominees in a Union Territory like Pondicherry. It also provides for limiting the number of ministers in a Union Territory administration, whereas in the case of full-fledged states such upper-limits are based only on the recommendations of the Santhanam Committee. Even this 10 per cent limit has been flouted with ease in the case of Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh earlier, and Rabri Devi in Bihar since.

Even without the constitutional question, the expansion of the Congress-TMC coalition government is wrought with troubles. Other than agreeing on the Congress getting chief ministership with its eight MLAs against the TMC's seven, there has not been any agreement on most counts.

Chief Minister Shanmugam and TMC founder G K Moopanar had to seek the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi before they agreed on sharing the six ministerial berths, including that of the chief minister, equally among themselves. While the Congress would have its nominee as speaker, the TMC is to get the deputy speakership, which its nominee already holds from the days of the failed DMK-TMC coalition. There was even an agreement on sharing the 16 posts of corporation chiefs equally.

The troubles attending on the Cabinet expansion in Pondicherry had brought the administration to a standstill. Even without this, the Territorial administration is hamstrung by the need for obtaining Central clearance for most of its decisions, which takes time.

"Now in the absence of a full-fledged Cabinet, and thanks to Shanmugam and Kannan spending more time on Cabinet-formation, not much work is being done at the Secretariat," says a senior official.

Simultaneously, the constitutional proprieties involving Shanmugam's induction first, and that of Balaji, , may have caused the revival of the demand for full-fledged statehood for Pondicherry.

"Then, we need not seek the Centre's approval for appointment of ministers, nor limit their number to six, which is what is at the bottom of the TMC's problems in naming its third nominee," says a Congress leader.

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