Former Puducherry CM Narayanasamy wants National Youth Festival to be cancelled

Former Puducherry Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy on Thursday appealed to the territorial Chief Minister N Rangasamy to cancel the National Youth Festival (NYF) scheduled for five days from January 12. He asked the Chief Minister to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the latter to postpone his visit to Puducherry on January 12 to inaugurate the national youth festival as coronavirus was spreading fast in Puducherry and cases of Omicron were also reported recently.

''Rangasamy heading the AINRC-BJP coalition government here appears to be a puppet in the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is part of the government here without being able to speak as all decisions relating to Puducherry and also on the visit of the Prime Minister were announced constantly by Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan,'' Narayanasamy alleged at a virtual press conference.

He wanted to know whether the Chief Minister was consulted before the programs to hold the festival were finalized and also to associate with the Prime Minister to kickstart the events.

Stating that Covid-19 cases were on the rise in Puducherry recently, he said the youth festival was aimed at bringing in more than 8000 youths and delegates and also their relatives to the union territory. ''It would be practically impossible to ensure safety protocols and hence the festival should be canceled and the Chief Minister should write to the Prime Minister to call off his visit in view of the current pandemic situation,'' the former Chief Minister said.

He also said the medical infrastructure facilities were poor here and added that the government machinery was also not geared up to meet the pandemic situation.

He further said the government in neighboring Tamil Nadu had imposed strict restrictions and curfews to contain the spread of the virus. The veteran Congress leader said similar restrictions should be imposed in Puducherry to protect the people from the virus.

Meanwhile, DMK leader R Siva appealed to the Centre and the Puducherry government to cancel plans to conduct the festival.

Saying that the number of fresh COVID-19 has been on the rise in the recent days and the youth festival organized by the Central government in association with the Puducherry administration would prove to be a 'super spreader' of the virus, opposition DMK leader R Siva called for the five-day event to be canceled.

The Leader of the Opposition in the territorial Assembly also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to inaugurate the festival on January 12 to avoid taking part in the festival in view of the rise in the number of cases.