The ongoing power struggle between Puducherry Chief Minister Narayanasamy and Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi further escalated on Friday when the state Assembly passed a unanimous resolution asking the central government to curtail the powers of the lieutenant governor, The News Minute reported. The resolution alleged that Bedi was not cooperating with the state government.

The resolution was placed in the assembly by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator KP Anbalagan on Friday and passed unanimously. It stated that many people-centric schemes had been affected as Bedi was not cooperating with the legislative. It asked the central government to introduce reforms to curtail the powers given to the LG and ensure more power lay with the government chosen by the people.

“We have taken this decision in the Assembly unitedly. I had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about this issue. We will be sending this decision of ours to the Central government,” Chief Minister Narayanasamy said after the session.

The incident comes a day after Narayanasamy had asked Kiran Bedi to prove the allegations of corruption made regardling postgraduate medical admissions by the Centralised Admission Committee. Narayanasamy had also asked Bedi to apologise for misguiding the students and people of Puducherry.

The Madras High Court on Friday ordered deemed institutions in the Pondicherry University to admit medical students under the government quota before June 19. Earlier, candidates who were denied admission to medical institutions in Puducherry had filed a public interest litigation.

Bedi vs the Puducherry government

The tiff between the chief minister and Bedi has been on for a while.

Recently, Narayanasamy had accused Bedi of not clearing nearly a dozen files sent to her office. The chief minister alleged the files Bedi had delayed were related to loan-waiver for drought-hit farmers, flight services from Puducherry to Hyderabad, and subsidising education for Scheduled Caste students till post-graduation level. “There is a drought situation in Puducherry. We wanted to waive cooperative loans to the farmers, but the Lt Governor is blocking it. The matter is under the state government,” Narayanasamy told The Indian Express.

Congress legislators also accused Bedi of intervening in their constitutional duty, by approaching their assembly segments and issuing orders without their notice. Narayanasamy had said orders could only be issued by the LG through the chief minister or the council of ministers, reported India.com.