PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Wednesday held the Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi responsible for the closure of the three textile mills in the Union territory.
Briefing newspersons, Narayanasamy said after the closure of the AFT mills, the LG has threatened officials of the concerned department to close down the Swadeshi cotton mills and Sri Bharathi Textile mills with effect from Wednesday.
The mill workers were without salary for several months and the government had sent a file for payment of the layoff amount, but the Lt Governor instead of approving it directed the official to close down the mills, he said.
Narayanasamy charged that the Lt. Governor is doing so to bring disrepute to the Congress–DMK government and it was a deliberate attempt to turn the workers against the elected government. However, the government is making alternative arrangements to provide some financial assistance to them as an interim measure, he said.
He said that the Lt Governor had also been standing in the way of sanction of grants to government aided private schools for disbursement of salaries to the teachers in the institutions. It has been a policy decision of the government for several years to provide 95 percent of the salary implication to the aided private schools as grants.
There is hardly any matter where the Lt Governor is not ‘interfering’, despite the Madras High Court orders, said the Chief Minister. Except closing down institutions, she has not played any role in welfare or development, said the Chief Minister adding that a question has now arisen whether Puducherry needed such an incumbent in the post of Lt Governor who is not interested in the development of Puducherry.
Narayanasamy said that although several representations had been made to the Centre on the 'style of functioning' of Kiran Bedi in violation of Madras High Court orders, nothing had happened so far. "She is functioning with an agenda to tarnish the government`s image," he alleged.
The Chief Minister also said that he had a meeting with officials to speed up the procedure to start industries here and it was decided to give all necessary approvals to entrepreneurs without delay through an online portal after coordinating with several departments.
Coming down heavily on the local unit of the BJP for criticizing his government, Narayanasamy questioned the reason for their failure to organize an agitation against the LG for the closure of the mills and against the central government for deciding to privatize the electricity department in the UT.