NE NEWS SERVICE
PUDUCHERRY, NOV 1
Puducherry on Sunday celebrated its 67th De Facto Merger (liberation) Day, which marked the former French colony’s merger with Indian Union in 1954.
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy unfurled the national flag at the celebration held on the Beach Road here. He inspected a Guard of Honour presented by the police and took salute at the march past by different contingents on the occasion.
Puducherry Assembly Speaker V P Sivakolundhu, Ministers, legislators, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, Director General of Police Balaji Srivastava, freedom fighters and delegates of different organisations were among those who were present. Addressing the gathering,
Narayanasamy listed the steps taken by his government to ameliorate the lot of the farmers, students, workers, downtrodden and marginalised sections and the youth of the union territory and also highlighted the measures taken to check COVID-19. He appealed to the people to keep supporting the government so that the welfare measures would be implemented without break.
The De Facto merger day was also celebrated in the UT’s outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, official sources said.
Puducherry and the three other regions, which were under the French rule, became part of Indian union de facto on November 1, 1954. Later, the Treaty of Cession inked then between the French and Indian governments was ratified in French parliament leading to “de jure” transfer of the French establishments in India to the Indian Union in 1962.
