Bedi derailing 'Swachch Bharat' scheme in Yanam: Minister

Puducherry, July 5 (PTI): Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao on Sunday charged Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi with derailing the centrally sponsored 'Swachch Bharat Abhiyan' scheme in Yanam region.

Puducherry, July 5 (PTI): Puducherry Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao on Sunday charged Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi with derailing the centrally sponsored 'Swachch Bharat Abhiyan' scheme in Yanam region. The scheme has come to a grinding halt in Yanam since July 1 as sanitary workers have not been paid, he said.

The Minister, who represents Yanam, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh, told reporters through a virtual press meet that Bedi had allegedly been adopting a discriminatory stand against Yanam. He said she has not approved of the file for payment of wages to the workers attached to the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan in Yanam for the last five to six months.

Rao said Bedi had earlier stood in the way of implementing a welfare scheme for fishermen in the Union Territory. "Now, the former IPS officer is disrupting the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan scheme in Yanam region by declining wages to the workers. The task of clearing the garbage could not be done since July 1 as the workers have not been given their pay," he said.

The Central government had already given instructions that during the current COVID-19 situation no section of workers should be denied wages as it would aggravate the source of livelihood of the have-nots. He said he would write a letter to Prime Minister, Home Minister and Secretary to Home Ministry saying that Bedi has allegedly been hindering the development of Yanam.

If the cleaning work is not continued and if Kiran Bedi did not cooperate, there would be a possibility of Yanam witnessing several health issues, he said. "She is discriminating against Yanam," the Minister alleged, and said he would inform Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy of the present predicament of the region.

He appealed to the Chief Minister to introduce a total lockdown in the Union Territory every Sunday as congestion in the fish market and mutton stalls was causing concern for people were not adhering to social distancing norms..