Pondy CM sacks Kannan

By Our Staff Reporter

PONDICHERRY DEC. 10. The Pondy Chief Minister, Mr. P. Shanmugham today recommended to the Lt. Governor, Dr. Rajani Rai that the PWD Minister, Mr. P. Kannan be dropped from the Cabinet, on the grounds of `violation of the principle of collective responsibility'.

The Chief Minister told a hurriedly-convened press conference that Mr. Kannan had not conducted himself in a disciplined manner inside the Assembly and had only approached him with details of his allegations (against the Cooperation Minister, Mr. C. Jayakumar) after going public with them.

Mr. Kannan had staged a walkout in the Assembly and observed a dharna in the well of the House demanding action against Mr. Jayakumar for his alleged links with the banned organisation, the LTTE.

The Chief Minister said collective responsibility demanded that any complaint be placed first before the Cabinet.

If there was no such discipline it would only mar the smooth functioning of the government, he said.

The Chief Minister called on the Lt. Governor this evening and submitted a letter requesting her to drop Mr. Kannan. Earlier in the day Mr. Kannan had met Mr. Shanmugham and submitted a memorandum citing evidence of the movement of `anti-national' forces in the union territory.

Mr. Shanmugham told a press conference then, in the presence of Mr. Kannan, that he would not stand in the way of any enquiry. There was no indication then that he would soon be sacking his Cabinet colleague.

Speaker serves notices

Meanwhile the Speaker, Mr. A. V. Subramanian (contacted over telephone from Karaikal) today said that he had sent notices to the three legislators Mr. S. Manohar, Mr. A. Elumalai and Mr. K. Rajasekara Odayar (the Deputy Speaker of the Territorial Assembly) calling for their views and comments relating to the petitions received from the two TMC Ministers seeking their disqualification.

The three had broken away in September from the TMC and formed a group called the TMC (Manohar group). The Ministers, Mr. Theni C Jayakumar and Mr. M. Kandaswamy presented petitions separately last week to the Speaker seeking their disqualification, on the ground that they had violated the provisions of the anti- defection legislation.

Mr. Subramanian said he had given 10 days time to the members to submit their comments.

Mr. Rajasekara Odayar told this correspondent that he had received the letter yesterday and was yet to go through the contents.

The Speaker said he had sent copies of all evidence and supportive documents the two Ministers had submitted to him.

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Section  : Southern States
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