Puducherry: With public donations Kiran Bedi to take up desilting of urban canals
Puducherry: Despite severe criticism from the elected government for taking up the work of desilting rural channels with public donations, Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi will now work on desilting urban canals to prevent inundation of several low-lying areas here. The Lt Governor had successfully completed the desilting of 23 channels in rural areas amidst charges of corruption from various political parties. Though the Chief Minister, Congress party legislators and Opposition parties came together alleging corruption in Bedi accepting fund through Corporate Social Responsibility Schemes (CSR) to desilt channels, the Lt Governor is now adopting the same donor modality to desilt channels in urban areas.
“Meeting with urban donors. They adopted 4 urban channels for desilting at their own cost of (Rs 6-7 lakh each) which if not done would have inundated poor people's colonies in low lying areas,” daid the Lt Governor in a WhatsApp message.
According to the Raj Nivas, Ms Bedi will be visiting desilting works of the tank as part of her morning visit on Saturday.
Ms Bedi said that various Tank Association members conducted a meeting on October 25in support of Lt Governor’s committed work to the Puducherry people.
“Tank Associations office-bearers declared that they are unconditionally supporting the dedicated work of the Lt Governor. They appealed to people to support the Lt Governor in this mission. Also appealed to the Chief Minister and MLAs not to disturb the works of the Lt Governor and instead support the Lt Governor,” she added.
Resident Welfare associations, traders association and the Indian Oil Corporation are among the donors who came forward to sponsor desilting works of urban channels.
On the other hand, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy along with Parliamentary secretary K. Lakshminarayanan visited the waterlogged areas on Friday in the town. Puducherry has been receiving a good amount of rain for the past two days as part of northeast monsoon. The Chief Minister directed PWD officials who accompanied him to take immediate steps to prevent water logging.
