Can’t be mere figurehead: Bedi

Hyderabad, January 10

In signs of widening rift with Congress government in Puducherry, Lt Governor Kiran Bedi today said that it wanted her to be just a “figurehead” though the rules assign her responsibilities of an administrator and made it clear she won’t back down.

Referring to Puducherry being “in a debt trap”, Bedi said she will take necessary steps for financial prudence.

Sticking to her announcement about quitting the post on May 29 next year, Bedi said she took the decision as she was discharging her duties for a “cause, and not a tenure,” and will “set in motion the needed practices” so a “third year may not be needed at all”.

Bedi’s statement to quit post at the end of two-year tenure came a day after eight Congress MLAs shot off a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh complaining about her style of functioning, in the backdrop of her cancelling an order of CM V Narayanasamy banning officials from using social media for official communication. 

The former IPS officer had initiated several measures, including to check crime and corruption and for a garbage-free Puducherry. Differences between the L-G and the government had occasionally come in the open. — PTI