Bedi keen to address the House, but government non-committal, say sources
PUDUCHERRY: With barely four days left for the Assembly to convene, there is no clarity yet on whether the session will commence with an address by Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi.
While Ms. Bedi had reportedly expressed her desire to address the House, the government had maintained a stoic silence on the request.
Highly placed sources in the government told The Hindu that Ms. Bedi had written to Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy expressing her desire to speak in the House, particularly on subjects such as open defecation and garbage management.
In fact, the Lt. Governor had set timelines under which Puducherry has to be ODF by October 2, 2017. The government estimates that about 55,000 houses do not have toilets, translating to about 2,75,000 individual members defecating in the open — a track record that is being reversed.
The Chief Minister in turn, sources said, had asked the Lieutenant Governor to despatch the written speech for the Cabinet approval, as it was the procedure.
Ms. Bedi on her part wrote to the Speaker directing him to take up discussion on the precarious financial condition of UT in general and public sector undertaking.
With the rules of governance ambiguous on whether the session should commence with the address of the Lt Governor, the government is playing it safe.
The Section 9 of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 says “the administrator may address the Legislative Assembly and may for that purpose require the attendance of members.”
The section further says that the “administrator may also send messages to the Assembly whether with respect to a Bill then pending in the Assembly or otherwise, and when a message is so sent, the Assembly shall with all convenient dispatch consider any matter required by the message to be taken into consideration.”
In all certainty, sources said, the government may consider the message sent by the Lt. Governor on a discussion of state of financial situation of UT.
The Business Advisory Committee would meet the day before the commencement of the session or on the day (January 24) the House convenes to decide on the proceedings, sources said.
“Even the consideration of the message by Ms. Bedi is not a certainty given the nature of relationship between Ms. Bedi and the governing regime, especially after it came to the notice of the government that the Lt. Governor had on her own written a letter to National Green Tribunal with respect to a fire breakout at the Kirumampet dumping yard recently,” said a senior functionary in the ruling establishment.
The Lt. Governor in the letter to NGT had urged the tribunal to “pass an appropriate binding order for implementation.”
“Why should the administrator request NGT to issue a direction to the government?” a legislator wondered.
