Puducherry CM lashes out at Centre in power tussle with LG
Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy has hit back at the Centre for backing Lt Governor (LG) Kiran Bedi in the ongoing power tussle he has been engaged with the former police officer.
Narayanasamy shot off a letter to the central government stating that it is the elected government that is vested with administrative powers to govern the Union territory as per Articles 239 AA and 240 Ist proviso of the Constitution.
His communiqué was in response to the home ministry’s clarification that the LG has full powers to call for papers of any particular department and that the position of the LG in a Union territory is wider in its scope and powers as compared to the position of a governor in a state.
“Perhaps the home ministry has not looked at the appropriate provisions of the Constitution, which I have pointed out in my letter,” Narayanasamy told HT over phone from Puducherry.
He said those constitutional provisions made it clear that once an elected government is constituted, the role of the president in governance comes to an end. “And if the president’s role itself is over, then what is the standing of the LG,” he asked.
The chief minister said his government has never objected to LG seeking clarifications and calling for papers. “We only want the LG to follow the established norms in calling for papers,” he added.
He said he was objecting to Bedi writing to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to pass binding orders on the government to protect the environment around the Kurumbapet garbage dumping yard or issuing orders to release an elephant from a temple on the basis of complaints from some NGOs.
Accusing her of interfering with the running of the state and coming in the way of an elected government from fulfilling its election promises, the CM recently sent a memorandum to the union home ministry.
The home ministry, the chief minister claimed, was silent on many of the objections he had raised.