Bedi, Narayanasamy lock horns over riding two-wheeler sans helmets

Puducherry, October 20

Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, who have been at loggerheads over various issues, on Sunday got into a verbal duel over the helmet rule with both accusing each other of violating it.

Bedi, in a WhatsApp message, charged Narayanasamy and other functionaries of the ruling Congress with violating the Motor Vehicles Act by not wearing helmets during a motorbike rally on Saturday, the last day of campaign for the Kamaraj Nagar assembly by-election.

The former IPS officer also said she requested the Puducherry Director General of Police Balaji Srivastava to take legal action against the ‘defaulters’ for the violation of the Motor Vehicles Act and the directive of the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court in this regard.

In a counter to Bedi’s charge, the chief minister, on his Twitter handle, posted a photograph of Bedi riding pillion on a scooter (ridden by a woman staff of her office) incognito “without wearing helmet” on the night of August 19, 2017 to learn the condition of roads and safety of women at night in the Union territory.

The chief minister asked Bedi to practise before she preaches and made his counter to her criticism of his and his partymen not wearing helmets.

Meanwhile, convenor of the Students Federation of the Union territory of Puducherry S Swaminathan said in a message that he had also presented a petition to the DGP with the newspaper clippings of reports which appeared in August 2017 containing the photo of Bedi riding pillion on the scooter without wearing helmet. —PTI