Puducherry Assembly session: DMK, Congress members stage walkout over Cyclone Fengal relief

Principal Opposition DMK and its ally Congress on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) staged a walkout from the Puducherry Assembly, alleging failure on the part of the AINRC-BJP government in providing relief to all those who were affected by Cyclone Fengal in the Union Territory (UT).

Principal Opposition DMK and its ally Congress on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) staged a walkout from the Puducherry Assembly, alleging failure on the part of the AINRC-BJP government in providing relief to all those who were affected by Cyclone Fengal in the Union Territory (UT).

The cyclone relief become a bone of contention between the ruling party and Opposition when Independent legislator P. Angalane, while participating in the discussion on Lt. Governor K. Kailashnathan’s address, spoke about the non-fulfilment of the government’s commitment to provide assistance to people whose houses were damaged in the cyclone.

Mr. Angalane said the government could only provide ₹5,000 each to ration card holders as rain assistance and compensation to farmers. The government was not able to disburse assistance to people whose properties got damaged in the rain, he said.

As Mr. Angalane made the remarks, Opposition DMK and Congress members were on their feet, pinning the blame on the government for not providing the assistance for the damaged houses.

Opposition leader R. Siva said the Central government provided only around ₹61 crore as assistance for Puducherry during Cyclone Fengal. “You are having the same alliance governments at the Centre and in Puducherry, but the UT did not get adequate compensation from the Centre,” he said.

The BJP members raised objection to the criticism levelled by the DMK MLAs against the Union government. As the members engaged in a heated exchange, Mr. Siva led others in staging a walkout from the Assembly.

Apart from the issue over the flood relief, the House witnessed frequent verbal duels between the DMK and BJP legislators on the issue of the two-language policy. The DMK members said they were not against Hindi language but was only opposed to the imposition of the language in Tamil Nadu.