Puducherry: Legislators of the ruling Congress party and the opposition AIDMK further upped the ante against Bedi during the two-day session of Puducherry assembly urging the Union government to recall the Lt Governor. They charge her with undermining the role of the government and elected representatives and delaying development works in the Union Territory.
The MLAs wanted the House to adopt a resolution to urge the Centre to recall Bedi after the House passed the vote on account by voice vote. AIADMK legislator and party leader A.Anbalagan, while participating in the debate, alleged that the Lt Governor is delaying development works in the Union Territory by not giving approval to cabinet decisions.
Congress MLAs, K.Lakshminarayanan and RKR Anantharaman, also registered their protest against the functioning style of the Lt Governor. The legislators charged Bedi with undermining the duty, roles and responsibilities of the elected members of the legislative assembly and urged the Centre to recall her.
The members also sought action against Puducherry municipal commissioner Chandrasekar for 'disrespecting' the elected representatives of the House allegedly because of the directions of the Lt Governor. Mr Chandrasekeran had recently convened a meeting on the direction of the Lt Governor at Sudhana Nagar in AIADMK legislator A.Bhasker's Mudaliarpet constituency without informing him.
When Mr Bhaskar questioned this there was an altercation between the two. Mr Bhaskar raised a privilege issue with the Speaker against the officer and the latter in turn registered a police complaint against Mr Bhaskar. Talking about the issue the Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said that it is the duty of the officer to inform the concerned legislator and ensure the participation in the programme.
Speaker V.Vaithilingam directed the government to replace the official from the post and keep him under compulsory wait.
The privilege issue has been forwarded to the deputy speaker who is the chairman of the privileges committee, the Speaker said. Mr Vaithilingam also asked Mr Annazhagan to place the resolution to replace Ms Bedi in the house for consideration.
