Accusing the Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi of systematically trying to stall development projects, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy on Tuesday said his government would go ahead with the port project as planned.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr Narayanasamy said he was compelled to break his decision not to comment on Ms. Bedi after she came up with “unsubstantiated”’ allegations against the government and her threat to expose a Minister.
On the port development, he said it was Ms. Bedi who allotted dredging work to the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) without even consulting the Minister concerned .
The government was in favour of awarding the work through open bid but the Lt Governor had prevailed upon Union Ministry of Shipping to allot the work to DCI.
‘Clear violation’
The DCI was supposed to extract three lakh cubic metres of sand and deposit the material for beach nourishment. However, the agency could only deposit one lakh cubic metres on the beach front and about 1.9 lakh cubic metres of excavated sand was dumped in the sea. This was a clear violation, he said.
“Now, who is responsible for the lapse in the work by DCI,” he asked.
Stating that 95 per cent of dredging work was over, he said the government would go ahead with the project despite objection raised by Ms. Bedi
The Chief Minister said Ms Bedi should explain why the dredging work was cleared if she knew that operationalisation of the port would cause environmental damage.
On Ms. Bedi’s remark that her intervention had led to prevention of corruption in resumption of flight operations, the Chief Minister said his government agreed to provide a subsidy of Rs. 50 lakh per month on the advice of Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The Union Ministry had suggested that his government providesubsidy for initial three to six months to commence the flight operations. The Ministry had promised to include UT under Udaan scheme for funding after the initial months, he said.
“Is she suggesting that the Union Civil Aviation Minister has committed wrong,” he said. The Chief Minister said he had brought to the notice of the Prime Minister and Home Minister the style of functioning of Ms Bedi.
Mr Narayanasamy said it was up to the Union Government to decide on Ms Bedi’s continuance as Lt Governor.
