Cong. flays Bedi’s ‘financial imprudence’

The Lieutenant Governor had reportedly sought high salary for OSD

The ruling Congress on Thursday questioned the “genuineness” of Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi’s stand on financial prudence and wanted to ascertain if she works for the development of Puducherry even as Ms. Bedi hit back demanding a Shunglu panel-like exercise to probe misdeeds of the territorial administration.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister K. Lakshminarayanan and Government whip R.K.R. Anantharaman, at a press conference on Thursday, levelled a series of charges against the Lieutenant Governor.

Mr. Lakshminarayanan said Ms. Bedi, after assuming charge, had sought from the government a salary of ₹3 lakh a month for her Officer on Special Duty (OSD), which was higher than the salary drawn by the Chief Secretary.

He criticised the Lieutenant Governor for not giving her assent to the Cabinet decision to write off loans taken by farmers from cooperative societies. She wanted the government to write off farm loans taken from the nationalised banks. These loans could be written off only if the Centre allowed it and it was not within the powers of the territorial administration. However, the Lieutenant Governor returned the file. Because of this, government could not waive farm loans taken from cooperative societies.

Ms. Bedi took to twitter to voice her support for having a commission on the lines of Shunglu panel to probe the functioning of the Puduchery government. “Puducherry also needs a Shunglu Committee to look into the way UT is administered,” she said on twitter. She accused the government of not depositing employee share in Provident Fund. “Not depositing PF of employees is a criminal offence. Puducherry PSU and societies have defaulted ₹36.23 crore. ”

‘Bedi undemocratic’

The Communist parties announced that they will stage demonstration against the Lieutenant Governor for curtailing the functioning of a democratically elected government, terming her attitude as “undemocratic”.

While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) demanded dismissal of Kiran Bedi from the post of Lieutenant Governor, the Communist Party of India called her an “agent of the RSS.”

CPI(M) Secretary Rajangam and Puducherry unit Secretary V. Perumal said that although the CPI(M) differed with the Congress in its ideology and practice, it could not permit the mockery of democracy or curtailing of the functioning of an elected government.