RECALL BEDI, PONDY CM URGES PRESIDENT
New Delhi/Puducherry, Feb. 10: Taking his fight with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi to the President of India, Chief Minister of Puducherry V. Narayanasamy on Wednesday urged Ram Nath Kovind to recall the former IPS officer, saying she was running a ‘tuglaq durbar.’
In a detailed memorandum presented to Kovind in New Delhi, Narayansamy said “even during French regime, we were not ill-treated like this.”
He complained that Bedi was ‘autocratic’ and was interfering in the administration, besides ‘impeding’ the implementation of various proposals of the elected government.
The Chief Minister, who has been at odds with Bedi over a number of issues concerning the union territory since her appointment there in 2016, had a half an hour meeting with the President.
He said he had presented the memorandum containing the various schemes allegedly impeded by Bedi and that he was accompanied by lone Lok Sabha member from Puducherry V. Vaithilingam and his cabinet colleagues M. Kandasamy and Malladi Krishna Rao.
“The proposal of the government to introduce 10 per cent quota for students from government schools and holding NEET certificates intending to do medical education had also been facing hurdles as the Lt Governor to whom the proposal was sent had forwarded it to the Centre”, he said.
In the memorandum, made available to the media at Puducherry, Narayansamy told the President that “Dr Kiran Bedi is running Tughlaq Darbar in undemocratic (manner) and in violation of Rules of Law.”
New Delhi, Feb. 10: As many as 93 cases of sedition were registered in different parts of the country in 2019 in which 96 people were arrested, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy said chargesheets were filed against 76 people while 29 were acquitted by the courts in 2019. The highest number of 22 sedition cases in 2019 was registered in Karnataka where 18 people were arrested, he said in a written reply to a question.
Reddy said 17 sedition cases were registered in Assam where 23 people were arrested.
A total of 11 sedition cases were registered in Jammu and Kashmir where 16 people were arrested. As many as 10 sedition cases were filed in Uttar Pradesh in which nine people were arrested, he said.
Replying to another question on whether any step has been taken to strengthen the sedition law (Section 124A of the IPC), the minister said the “amendment of laws is an ongoing process”.