Pondy Govt Should Close Liquor Shops Opened Near Residential Areas: Narayanasamy

Speaking to reporters here, he also expressed concern over the increasing sale of ganja and other narcotic substances spoiling the youth and students in the UT. The Congress leader said he could not understand how the government in Puducherry remained silent without taking action on the issue. The former chief minister said a secular and democratic front comprising Congress and other like-minded parties would soon launch agitations to ensure that the government intervened and closed the pubs and liquor shops functioning in residential areas and neighbourhoods of temples and schools here.

Wading into the row between Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi and the DMK government in the neighbouring state, he termed Ravi's actions in the TN assembly as "brazen violation of constitutional norms and conventions". Narayanasamy said Ravi had "omitted references to great stalwarts and skipped contents in several portions of the speech" that was prepared by the government headed by Chief Minister M K Stalin. The Congress leader called upon Ravi to quit the office of TN Governor. "If the Governor did not step down, the President should intervene and sack him in the larger interest of parliamentary democracy," he added.