Pondy Minister says he received threat to life

Puducherry: A minister and a legislator told Puducherry Assembly today that they had received threats to their lives, prompting Chief Minister V Vaithilingam to assure stringent action against persons involved.

After Opposition leader A M H Nazeem (DMK) raised the issue, Welfare Minister M Kandasamy admitted he had been facing such threats for some time. Even yesterday some of his followers informed him that a group of persons was planning to eliminate him.

Stating that he did not want to disclose names of those who gave him the information as they would face problem, the minister said he had immediately passed it on to the Director General of Police.

As members cutting across party lines expressed concern over the threat, government Whip P Angalane (Congress) also disclosed he too had received four letters of threat during the last few days and he had handed them over to the DGP.

In his intervention, Vaithilingam assured that the government would never be slack in taking stringent action against culprits posing threat to ministers, elected representatives and the public at large.

Opposition AIADMK and other members said if a minister's life was under threat one was left wondering as to what would happen to common man in Puducherry.

Home Minister E Valsaraj, on a direction from Speaker R Radhakrishnan, said he came to know about the threat to Kandasamy's life just an hour before the assembly session began today.

-PTI