Bedi terms Cong leader’s charges as false, malicious

Congress leader Dutt leveled the allegations at a press conference on Friday. The AICC secretary also alleged that the Centre had posted Bedi to destabilise the Congress government headed by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy.

Reacting to the allegations, Bedi, in a WhatsApp message to reporters later in the day, said the allegations were “false, malicious and absolutely baseless and unfair.”

“In my two-and-a-half years of service in Puducherry, there is not a single instance of any such situation. It is unethical to be making such false statements and misleading the readers,” she said. “The statement is absolutely regrettable,” she added.

Bedi said perhaps the work being done to make Puducherry cleaner, safer and financially better managed was not palatable to certain vested interests.

“Or else what could be the reason for such false statements?” she asked.

Bedi, a former IPS officer, had been at loggerheads with the Congress government here over several issues. Taking exception to her style of functioning, Narayanasamy has in the past demanded that Bedi be recalled.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Lt Governor Bedi dedicated her 214th weekend round to visit Thengaithittu harbour and Velrampet Lake.

According to a Raj Nivas release, the visit to the harbour was based on a complaint received in the open house at Raj Nivas that the estuary of the harbour has become shallow due to non-desilting and the fishermen were suffering.

Finding it true, the Lt Governor directed the officials to undertake dredging and she was told that it could not be done due to want of funds. She then asked the PWD to take care of it and suggested the need for CSR or sponsors for the desilting.

Bedi then visited the Velrampet Lake and witnessed the ongoing saplings planting drive there.

Senior officials of the PWD and Municipality besides the Raj Nivas team accompanied her.