Kiran Bedi refuses to permit contempt petition against Centre

Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi on Monday turned down the Congress government’s request for her approval file a contempt petition against the Centre in the Supreme Court for failing to set up the Cauvery Management Board.

“All suits and proceedings for and against the administration should be instituted only in the name of the Union of India. Filing of a contempt petition by Union of India represented by the Puducherry government against the officers of the Union of India will not be appropriate. Therefore, I have disagreed with the request of the chief minister in filing contempt petition,” Bedi said in a letter addressed to Union home minister Rajnath Singh.

When chief minister V Narayanasamy again insisted on her approval for the proposal, Bedi, in turn, referred the issue to the Union home ministry as there was a difference of opinion between the elected government and the administrator.

Bedi writes to PM seeking CMB

Meanwhile, Bedi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to immediately constitute the CMB and Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee. She said that the agricultural operations in Karaikal, an enclave of Puducherry in Tamil Nadu, depended on the water from Cauvery river. Karaikal has been allotted seven tmcft of Cauvery river water as its share.

The area under cultivation had drastically reduced in the past due to the shortage of water affecting the livelihood of farmers and farming labourers in Karaikal, she said. Bedi requested the PM to direct the concerned ministry to constitute the CMB and CWRC forthwith without further delay.