Puducherry: A day after Union Minister V Narayanasamy accused the Puducherry government of having failed on several counts, Chief Minister N Rangasamy claimed that the Centre had full faith in its ability to implement centrally sponsored schemes in the Union Territory.
The chief minister was presiding over a meeting for implementation of a pilot project on integrated coastal management by the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem.
Hitting out at the Rangasamy-led AINRC government, Minister of State in the PMO Narayanasamy had alleged that all promises AINRC held out in poll manifesto last year remained only on paper as no step had been taken to implement them.
The Puducherry administration was getting a number of projects to be launched as pilot initiatives to show the way for the rest of the country and the sanction by the Centre was proof of the faith it reposed in the Puducherry government, Rangasamy said.
The Integrated Coastal Management project was one such initiative which is being implemented in Puducherry as a comprehensive scheme to help fishermen in the country and protect ecosystems in coastal belt, he said.
The project is being executed jointly by various NGOs andgovernment departments.
Inaugurating the meeting, Lt Governor Iqbal Singh said the project was an initiative under the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Global Environmental Facility scheme to evolve a common strategy for exploitation of shared marine resources of the Bay of Bengal.
Eight countries - India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand - have joined hands to participate in the project.
Puducherry has been selected as the pilot site in the country for Integrated Coastal Management, he said.
The French Consul General in Puducherry, Pierre Fournier hailed the selection of the Union Territory for the project.
He said a French technology company would take steps to restore the 'sand beach' that had virtually disappeared now.
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