After Telangana, Governor Tamilisai attracts Opposition ire over ‘praja darbar’ at Puducherry Raj Bhavan

Narayanasamy also asked Chief Minister N Rangasamy, whose NR Congress is leading the government with BJP on board, to step in and stop such events. He dared Soundararajan to hold such public-contact programmes in Telangana.

A Anbazhagan, AIADMK Puducherry secretary, also opposed the Lt Governor’s programme, saying that collecting petitions from the public is a shame and an insult to the elected government. “The Raj Bhavan’s call to people for meeting the Lt Governor to submit petitions will make the government system redundant, it will only bring disrespect to the elected government,” he said.

Instead of doing such things the Lt Governor should work towards ensuring the rights of the state, increasing the revenue and bringing Central government schemes to Puducherry, Anbazhagan added. Referring to Soundararajan, who hails from one of the important political families in Tamil Nadu for being the daughter of veteran Congress leader Kumari Ananthan, Anbazhagan said she should have avoided such acts that disrupt the government system.

Reacting to the controversy, Soundararajan told The Indian Express that Raj Bhavan also belongs to the people, like the Assembly and the secretariat. “Narayanasamy seems to have said that I should do it in Telangana. I was doing it there also. He should go and check. Even if the government refuses to follow protocols there, I do the same in Telangana also. I organised a ‘mahila darbar’ there, 800 women applied and 350 attended. We received 160 petitions. Many issues we addressed immediately with the discretionary grant available with the Raj Bhavan. There was also a meeting with some 400 youngsters. An NGO donated Rs 50 lakh for cancer treatment, and someone donated Rs 50 lakh for ex-servicemen. There were many things I did there, too. Nothing new in it,” Soundararajan said, adding she will be meeting people in Puducherry on the first and third Saturday every month.