During her tenure ad traffic commissioner of the national Capital, Kiran Bedi was given the nickname of ‘Crane Bedi’ for her ruthless stance against violators of traffic rules. As the lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry, Bedi is leading a caravan of officials in her weekly morning round ups to set right the administration much to the consternation of the elected Government led by Chief Minister V Narayanasamy.
The ongoing turf war for supremacy between her and Narayanasamy has not deterred Bedi from going all out against the callousness and indifference of the administration towards basic civic issues. Weekends in Puducherry have turned out to be tense moments for staff members of various government departments who have failed to address problems faced by the people in the Union Territory.
Sunday morning saw Bedi leading her entourage of officials to the electric crematorium at Karuvadikuppam which has not been functional for the last six months. “Though the local MlA and other officials were informed about the state of affairs, nobody bothered to rectify the problem and people in the area have been suffering silently. As a last resort, we wrote to the lG and today she turned up at the crematorium with her officials,” said Kumaran, a local resident.
The assistant engineer, Oulgaret Municipality, who is in charge of the crematorium, briefed the l-G about the broken down crematorium. ‘He told her that action has been initiated to get the crematorium repaired and assured her that ot would become fully operational soon,” said a Raj Nivas official who accompanied the l-G during her inspection visit. Bedi expressed her displeasure over the absence of an annual contract maintenance of the electric crematorium to ensure regular maintenance whi h has resulted in the breaking down of the system. She also pointed out to the engineer that the maintenance record of the facility too was thoroughly inadequate.
The lG instructed the secretary (local administration department) and the municipal commissioner, Oulgaret to prepare a time bound action programee to make the crematorium facility functional at the earliest. One of the senior Government officials told The Pioneer on condition of anonymity that he stayed away from the venue to save himself from a possible embarrassment. "The major issue is the absence of a uniform rate for cremation in the conventional crematorium adjacent to the electric crematorium. The crematorium keeper charges as per his whims and fancies and this has resulted in resentment among the people," said the official.
“This is a new experience for people in the Union Territory as we are seeing the head of the Government herself attending to our complaints and that too personally,” said Ramesh, a citizen who was impressed by the style of functioning of Bedi.
A Raj Bhavan release said that Sunday’s outing was the 90th weekend round undertaken by the l-G in Puducherry. Early Saturday morning, Bedi along with NCC cadets attending a training camp at lawspet, undertook a cycle rally to inspect the progress of the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan works in the union territory.
The pro-active style of functioning of the former IPS officer has rattled the Congress government which is engaged in a shadow boxing with the lG.