Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Wednesday sought the intervention of President Ram Nath Kovind to immediately recall Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, saying she had been “impeding” implementation of various welfare measures and decisions of his Cabinet.

Talking to reporters here, the Chief Minister said he had presented a detailed memorandum to the President during the latter’s visit to the Union Territory on December 23 to participate in a convocation.

“I have requested the President to intervene and recall Kiran Bedi as Lt Governor,” he said.

He said he had pointed out in the memorandum that Bedi had not contributed anything to the development of Puducherry ever since she became the Lt Governor.

Narayanasamy also stated that the Lt Governor was functioning “arbitrarily” and was seeking to run a parallel government, and that the schemes that would see the light of the day were facing hiccups because of hurdles she had been placing.

The Congress government had also earlier demanded that the Centre recall Bedi.

He pleaded for the grant of Statehood to Puducherry and apprised the President of the number of resolutions adopted on the floor of the Assembly since 1987 pushing for it. The President assured to go into the demands, he added.

Criticising the Centre for introducing the new citizenship law, the Chief Minister said this legislation and the NRC were “ill conceived” and were aimed at achieving the goal of “Hindutva” championed by the BJP.

All secular parties would hold a big rally here on Thursday under the leadership of the ruling Congress to protest the CAA and the NRC.

Referring to the incident where a Post Graduate student wearing a hijab was allegedly prevented from attending the annual convocation at the Pondicherry University, Narayanasamy said he was preoccupied with the convocation ceremony with President Kovind, the chief guest of the function.

“I was not aware of the sufferings the graduate faced,” he said, adding that he has, however, asked the Vice-Chancellor of the University to hold an inquiry into the incident and send him a report.

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