PUDUCHERRY: Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi on Tuesday termed as false and fake information spread by some vested interests that she had sent a report to the Centre for merger of Yanam region with Andhra Pradesh.
The former IPS officer, in a statement here, said, "This is a highly condemnable and utterly false information."
Yanam is an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh.
Bedi said the false information has been spread to divert deliberately the attention of the people from addressing the real issues ailing in Yanam region like providing safe drinking water, preventing flooding in low- lying areas through cost-effective technology and poor healthcare system, among other things.
She alleged serious diversion of resources by brazen violation of environmental laws in Yanam and asked its administrationto safeguard public money from wasteful expenditure "as was personally seen and recorded during my visit to Yanam two weeks ago.
"Underscoring the need for judicious use of the funds provided by the Centre for the development of Yanam, the Lieutenant Governor said the budgetary provision for Yanam for the current year (2019-2020) was Rs 187 crore for Yanam and a major chunk of the allocation was from the Centre through centrally sponsored Schemes (CSS)," she said.
She said she had asked officials to make visits to Yanam every three months to review utilisation of funds and that she would visit the region again.
"The office of Lieutenant Governor would continue to protect the interest of the people of Yanam in all respects and denied the rumour that Yanam was sought to be merged with AP as a totally false information," the statement said.