Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal has urged President Ram Nath Kovind to immediately recall the administrator of Lakshadweep, alleging that imposition of a series of measures has caused immense disturbance and disquiet in the islands.
In a letter to the president, Venugopal claimed that the local people are up in arms against the "unilateral measures" imposed by Administrator Praful Patel in Lakshadweep.
He alleged that the administrator has curtailed the powers of democratically elected district panchayats and is unilaterally taking over their power.
He said Lakshadweep has strong cultural and historical ties with Kerala since centuries and islanders have been depending on the Beypore port for freight transit.But they are now being forced to shift to the Mangalore port for this purpose, Venugopal claimed.
Congress MP Shahshi Tharoor and several Malayalam movie stars, Prithviraj Sukumar, Saleem Kumar, and Geetu Mohandas, have also voiced their concern.