Successive govts in Puducherry marked by corruption, says Prakash Javadekar

Puducherry: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday alleged that the successive regimes of Congress, DMK, AIADMK and AINRC in the Union Territory were marked by "corruption and bad governance".

The senior BJP leader told reporters that Congress and DMK who had ruled Puducherry in the past and are contesting the May 16 assembly elections in alliance "are corrupt and they are interested in filling their pockets and not the coffers".

Javadekar, who earlier launched the BJP's Puducherry unit website, dubbed AIADMK as a "one leader party" and said it "becomes mobile only during election time."

Hitting out at ruling AINRC, an erstwhile ally of BJP, he said it had also failed the people, particularly the youth hit by unemployment.

"Although the Union Territory is endowed with good potential for development particularly in tourism sector, none of the four parties provided corruption-free governance here," he said.

He said the people now want a change and progress at par with other Union Territories like Chandigarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Daman and Diu.

Asserting that it would always be better for Puducherry to have a government "which is in sync with the central government", he appealed to the electorate to vote BJP, contesting the polls on its own, to power.

Taking a strong exception to the slew of freebies announced in the AIADMK poll manifesto, he said, "People want jobs and not freebies as such freebies would only make them beggars."

He added that BJP was committed to providing sustainable way of life by providing job opportunities to the people which would also promote their self respect.