Amit Shah promises more high-tech factories in Puducherry, says NDA has slashed unemployment rate from 47% to 4.3% in Union territory

PUDUCHERRY: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday accused the previous Congress govt under V Narayanasamy of pushing the Union territory of Puducherry backwards through corruption, including medical seat scams and a Rs 15,000 crore Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) fraud, as per the CAG reports.

Campaigning for the NDA candidates in Mannadipet, Shah said the amount lost to corruption could have funded three years of Puducherry’s budget. He claimed that the NDA govt slashed the unemployment rate from 47% to 4.3%. The govt had conducted successful job fairs to provide employment opportunities to the youth, he said.




Shah outlined a road map to transform the Union territory into a premier industrial and Information Technology (IT) destination. He said there are plans to establish Puducherry as a major IT hub. He noted that the region is already producing three lakh laptops annually for export and promised more high-tech factories to curb the migration of educated unemployed youth for jobs.

He assured that the long-dormant Ariyur and Lingareddypalayam sugar mills would be revived through private-public partnerships (PPP). He promised to hike the monthly assistance for fishermen from Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 and the annual financial aid for farmers from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000, and provide a free cow or two goats to women engaged in agriculture to boost the rural economy.

Taking a dig at the leader of the opposition of the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi’s recent comments on fuel prices, he remarked that Gandhi seemed to be "living in a dream world." "Rahul Gandhi talks about petrol prices in Pakistan to scare Indians. In India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have ensured stability despite global crises,” he said.

He said the INDIA bloc is a house divided, with allies fighting each other in five different constituencies in Puducherry, whereas the constituents of the NDA are united. With polling scheduled for April 9, the high-profile visits by Modi, Gandhi, and Shah have turned Puducherry into the most-watched territory in the country.