Puducherry saw labour unrest, high crime rate in 2012

Puducherry: 2012 began on a violent note in Puducherry as unprecedented labour unrest in Yanam claimed two lives and as the year progressed, the N Rangasamy government had a tough time in dealing with severe fund crunch and the Opposition which was up in cudgels against it on all fronts. Labour unrest, which turned violent at the Yanam plant of Regency Ceramics Ltd, claimed the lives of its president and a dismissed union leader, besides leaving several injured and causing damage to property. The CBI probed into the incidents and arrested an inspector and a sub inspector amid allegations that no regular investigation was conducted by police.

In October, Congress legislator Malladi Krishna Rao from Yanam came out with a dramatic announcement of quitting the membership of the Assembly and faxed his resignation to Speaker V Sabapathy. The Speaker, however, rejected the resignation on the ground that communications through fax could not be accepted and the member should submit it in the format as given by the relevant rules. Hence the question whether Rao had quit the post of MLA or not remains a suspense. Rangasamy, who formed his AINRC government in 2011, presented his second successive tax-free budget for Rs 5,540 crore for 2012-2013 on July 16. Former chief minister M O H Farook, who was also a governor of Kerala, died on January 26 in a private hospital at Chennai of respiratory problem. The revenue department suspended two officials, including a woman, in Yanam for allegedly forging documents to procure central funds for construction of a wall under flood prevention scheme. The Thane cyclone of 2011 left a trail of damages in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and other sectors in Puducherry and Karaikal regions. The then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram made an assessment of the loss by visiting some of the cyclone-hit villages in January. His visit was followed by a Central team which also assessed the damages. The crime graph went north in Puducherry during 2012, the most startling of the events being the killing of an undertrial in August by some persons who hurled bombs at him when he was being taken in a police van to Karaikal from a local court. The house of a French national was also attacked but luckily no one was present inside. A child was injured when a bomb exploded in the terrace of a multi-storeyed apartment. The government-owned AFT mills suspended operations for over six months and relief and restoration packages were worked out to revive the production in the mill subsequently infused hope to workers. The Opposition kept attacking the government alleging poor planning, failure to collect taxes from fuel dealers and high profile power consumers and also to maintain law and order. At the fag end, the State Election Commission announced a three-phase election for local bodies on January 4, 8 and 10 next year. PTI