Cong, DMK & Left parties hold demo against Kiran Bedi

Ruling Congress, its ally DMK and Left parties today staged a demonstration near Raj Nivas here, condemning Lt Governor Kiran Bedi’s recent bid to ‘dislocate’ the free rice scheme in rural areas.

Party leaders who spoke at the demonstration condemned Bedi’s recent announcement that implementation of the scheme in rural areas was subject to the maintenance of hamlets and keeping them ‘open defecation free and garbage free.’ DMK said the Lt Governor has no locus standi to fix conditions for its operation and that the demonstration today was aimed at urging Bedi “to keep herself within limits.”

Bedi had on April 28 directed authorities to make clean villages, a precondition for distribution of free rice, but withdrew it within hours after protests by Opposition parties. She had cited poor sanitation conditions in rural Puducherry during her visits and to make a turnaround,directed linking rice distribution to good sanitation in villages. She also set a May 31 deadline for villages to be made clean.

Bedi also wrote to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, bringing to his notice poor sanitation conditions in villages in rural Puducherry during one of her weekend visits. She said she was anguished to see the ‘slow pace’ of rural sanitation despite efforts to transform the villages into neat and clean village under Swachh Bharat Mission. Bedi however withdrew the directive hours after she issued it, as it drew flak from opposition parties.

Under the free rice scheme, families under below poverty line are entitled to get 20 kg rice every month while those with yellow cards in the Above Poverty line category are entitled for 10 kg rice. Ever since she became Lt Governor in May 2016, Bedi and the Congress government have been at loggerheads over various issues, including her style of functioning, among others.