The Lt. Governor’s refusal of permission to commence Assembly proceedings on Monday is the latest salvo fired by Kiran Bedi at the Puducherry government, in what seems to be a long-standing dispute between the two arms of the government.
Soon after Raj Nivas was shut down recently when a staff tested positive for COVID-19, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao declared that Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who was also administered the RT-PCR, had tested negative.
“I’m very happy for Kiran Bedi. People would have been in panic had the results been positive. Now, people can rejoice,” he said.
Only the other day, Mr. Malladi hardly masked his displeasure while alleging that the Lt. Governor, who “after lying low for 70 days of lockdown was now holding parallel meetings and passing separate instructions to officials that disturbed pandemic work”.
The Lt Governor’s office responded that the Raj Nivas briefings on coronavirus-related challenges aimed to additionally strengthen internal collaboration and prevent the spread of the virus. The Raj Nivas is not an “onlooker but a stable contributor to people’s welfare”, Ms. Bedi said.
The back-and-forth was the latest in a flurry of signals that tensions between the Raj Nivas and the Government are running high once again. And, with the two seats of power not in lockstep, the impact has been felt across spheres of governance. The extended wait for MHA approval of the Budget for 2020-21 is the new bone of contention between the Raj Nivas and the Government — the previous vote on account was only till June 30.
Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy blamed the Lt.Governor for the delay stating that the administration had submitted proposals in February, aiming to present the budget in April.
Ms. Bedi fired back with a timeline of file movement to make her case that there was no delay at the Raj Nivas end. Eventually, the MHA nod came on Thursday, clearing the path for its presentation in the House.
Fishermen protest
On June 26, hundreds of fishermen lined up their boats on the sea in protest against the delay in getting ban relief and the move to filter out the benefit to fisher families already receiving old age pension. The means test approach was dropped and the Lt. Governor eventually sanctioned ₹7 crore from the budgeted sum of ₹12 crore as ban compensation apart from another ₹1.7 crore under the saving-cum-relief scheme.
Earlier, in April, there was a furore over distribution of free rice under a COVID-19 relief package. On April 16, the Chief Minister, alleged that the Lt. Governor was preventing distribution of 5 kg rice per member to an estimated 1.87 lakh red card holding BPL families by insisting that only cash should be paid via DBT.
The same day, legislators of AIADMK, BJP and AINRC locked the entry and exit gates of the Assembly in protest demanding distribution of rice and charged the CM of shifting the blame on Ms.Bedi.
With the rice relief being extended till November, the CPI (M) has written to Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, seeking an intervention to avoid delay and to channelise the relief through the PDS shops. However, a top Government official said the cash-for-rice scheme — which remains in force — and the free rice sanctioned as relief by the Centre were getting conflated in the political commotion.
Daunting task
Faced with the daunting task of distributing an estimated 9,000 mt of rice — which is thrice the usual monthly offtake — during the total lockdown, the Civil Supplies Department had to go for doorstep delivery.
“The only choice was whether to distribute the stock in one go or to phase it over three months,” the official said.
The department decided to not engage employees at PAPSCO/cooperatives, which run fair price shops, for the heavy lifting as they were already an aggrieved lot over not getting several months of pay arrears. Instead, teachers formed a major component of staff deployed for the task.
“The department opted for a single round of rice distribution and was able to complete doorstep delivery of the entire stock in a span of 20 days, which is quicker than usual offtake through the FPS channels,” the official said.
