Chennaites hail LG Bedi for cleanliness in Puducherry

Young entrepreneurs from Chennai who had gathered in Puducherry under the auspices of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) were in for a different experience on Saturday morning as they got a hands-on session on how to keep city environment clean.

What made the experience unique was the person who taught them the nuances of clean environment. Kiran Bedi, the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, interacted with the 50 young representatives of the CII’s Chennai Chapter and explained them how to pool in their energy and efficiency in tree plantation, cleanliness and health services and how to amalgamate them.

The boulevard in the Union Territory has become a pride of the local community and this was made possible only after Bedi’s taking over as the Lieutenant Governor, pointed out one of the residents. The CII team was in Puducherry as part of leadership and life skill orientation training programme. On Saturday morning, Bedi asked them to join her in her routine weekend City Swachh Cycle Rally and the youngsters readily accepted the invitation.

The sight of the first citizen of the union territory cycling along with her officials and the youngsters took travellers to the city by surprise. “For us, it has become a routine affair since she took over as Governor,” said Muthu Kumar, a farmer living in the suburbs. He pointed out that the union territory spots a clean look because of Bedi. “She is strict as well as humane. I have seen her teaching sanitary workers how to clean the garbage and remove them without causing disturbance to the people,” said Kumar.

During the cycle rally, Bedi was seen instructing the Puducherry Municipal Commissioner to keep name boards for all streets and clear the garbage heaped at some of the street corners. “This is the first time in my four decades of public life that I am seeing a pro-active lieutenant governor. She made Puducherry neat and clean. There is no water logging as all the drainages are cleaned up. She personally directed the whole work and it was a new experience for us, the local population,” said V Saminathan, MLA.

Saturday’s one hour bicycle rally with Kiran Bedi helped the young members of the CII to understand the degree of cleanliness of the city. “This is amassing and I have never knew that cities could be maintained clean like this,” one of the youth was heard telling Bedi. “We are happy that the youths from the CII were enthused and enlightened because of the hour-long cycle rally. They will be taking home some good lessons they learnt from here,” said one of the officials who accompanied the governor in her 153rd cycle rally.

Interestingly, Bedi has transformed Puducherry  in spite of a running battle with the Congress-led government of Chief Minister V Narayanasamy. The administration of union territory is always seen creating stumbling blocks in all the projects undertaken by Bedi and the Swachh Bharat initiative was not an exception. The Congress unit of the UT under the patronage of the Chief Minister leaves no opportunity to ridicule and taunt Bedi.