Puducherry: The Puducherry Lt. Governor lashed out against the Welfare Minister M.Kandasamy for his comments that "the Lt. Governor is working with an ulterior motive to discredit the Congress government in the Union Territory".
The ruling Congress party had alleged that Ms Bedi is "deliberately trying to twist facts to defame" the government on the issue of default on employee share in Employee Provident Fund (EPF). Ms Bedi had alleged a default by Puducherry PSUs and cooperative societies in remittance of PF to the tune of Rs 36.23 crore.
Slamming the minister through a series of tweets, Ms Bedi asked, "Is this shaming or stopping criminality?" She suggested a judicial enquiry into the issue to recover the money. "A judicial enquiry is warranted to know more and recover people's money's.", she tweeted. The Lt. Governor said that she is happy that the issue of EPF is exposed now and hopeful of recovering the money soon.
Further moving a step ahead the Lt Governor, who left for New Delhi on Saturday amid escalating tussle between Raj Nivas and the Congress government, sent an e-mail to the secretary of law in Puducherry, G. Sendil Kumar, seeking legal opinion on who can order a judicial enquiry in the Union Territory to fix responsibility in the Provident fund issue and also the recoveries in a time bound manner.
Ms Bedi charged Mr Kandasamy , who is in charge of the labour department for not taking any action though he is aware of the default having happened. "Even when the Minister is admitting that this has happened. And he is directly in charge. Now for nearing 11 months. What did they do? But all PSUs are with different Ministers too.", said Ms Bedi in the email sent to the secretary of law.
The minister on Saturday had explained that the PF remittances had taken place during the previous regimes and the present congress government has no role in this. Making her stand clear on the issue, Ms Bedi said that any diversion of EPF is a criminal offence as hard earned money of poor people is involved in this.
She alleged that the pleas of people were falling on deaf ears and sought an immediate legal opinion on a judicial enquiry in the issue before "it may go as a Public Interest Litigation to respond what has the Lt Governor done once it came to her notice.", said Ms Bedi in the email.
The Lt Governor and the government locked horns again in the Union Territory following the removal of Puducherry municipal commissioner R Chandrasekaran by Speaker V. Vaithilingam following a complaint raised against the official by AIADMK (Amma) MLA A.Baskar to the Assembly Privileges Committee. The Lt. Governor cancelled the order and slammed the Chief Secretary of Puducherry for issuing an order in service matter without the consent of the Lt Governor.
Pondicherry was witnessing the power struggle and war of words between the Lt Governor and the elected government following this. Political parties across the spectrum, cutting across the party lines lined up against the Lt. Governor and an all-party delegation plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister to press for Ms Bedi's recall.
The never-ending tussle between Ms Bedi and the Narayanasamy led Congress government started immediately after they assumed charge in May last year. The Lt. Governor is making her stand clear that she did not want to be a 'mere figurehead' in the Union Territory, but an administrator where the congress party is criticising Ms Bedi for overruling the elected government and legislators.
