Puducherry: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi urged Chief Minister V Narayanasamy to focus on improving his work instead of focusing on how the Lt Governor is running her office.
The Lt Governor’s statement comes hours after the Chief Minister accused her of violating rules in the appointment of a retired government official as consultant cum Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Lt Governor.
G Theva Needhi Das, who retired on June 30, was appointed as the adviser of the Lt Governor after Ms Bedi sought permission from the Centre.
“The Chief Minister was very distressed with the presence of an efficient OSD Mr Das in LG office. He has been duly appointed with the approval of government of India. He has been the most efficient, and honest public official all through this career,” Bedi said.
Ms Bedi alelged that the Chief Minsiter has tried his level best even in the past to dislodge the officer only to weaken the office of the Lt Governor.
“Recall a show cause notice was even served on him to harass him to block his promotion. He was even lobbied to be transferred out of Puducherry when he had just less than one year of service left. This is all only to weaken the office of the Lt Governor,” alleged the Lt Governor.
Ms Bedi also reminded the Chief Minister that ‘he will not succeed in his intentions.”
“The Chief Minister has not succeeded so far. And he won’t succeed in future too. The government of India knows the intentions of the Chief Minister,” she said.
The Lt Governor also reminded the Chief Minister that permission was given to engage senior retired officers as OSDs to the Chief Minister and ministers.
“These officers are discharging duties of Private Secretary to the Chief Minister or ministers. At no point of time my office interfered with or questioned the functioning of the OSDs in the Office of Council of Ministers,” said Ms Bedi.
Further replying to the charges of levelled against her by the Chief Minister in raising funds under corporate social responsibility (CSR) from private companies and institutions for desilting channels and other water bodies in Puducherry , the Lt Governor said that Mr Narayansamy is ‘unhappy’ to see his own Puducherry becoming ‘Water Rich’.
Ms Bedi charged that instead of being grateful to the sponsors for extending material support in the form of machinery and payments directly to contractors, Narayanasamy is trying to pick holes which do not exist.
“Instead of flooding, Puducherry channels will now be filling our water bodies not done in this comprehensive manner in the recent past. Lt Governor’s office shall reward all such generous donors with Swatchtahi Seva awards on November 3 in a function at RajNivas,” she said.
Saying that all the works have been done without any financial cost to the Public Works Department, the Lt Governor said that the Chief Minister also will be invited to attend the function being held at Raj Nivas.
The Lt Governor also advised the Chief Minister to concentrate on the files pending at his office for months rather than focusing on how Raj Nivas is functioning.
