Am partially happy, says Puducherry CM after meeting Lt Governor, suspends dharna

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy temporarily suspended his ongoing dharna late on Monday evening and said that he is partially happy with the outcome of meeting that he held with Governor Kiran Bedi.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy was on a sit-in protest outside Lt Governor Kiran Bedi's residence since February 13.

On Monday he held a long meeting with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and announced to suspend his dharna by saying that most of the issues were resolved in the meeting.

Speaking to media personal he said, "Lt Governor had called us for a discussion on demands that we have raised in the letter written to her before starting the dharna. We had over four and half hour meeting in which some of the major people's issue can be resolved to some extent. We were able to resolve most of the issues including free rice issue, additional old age people, recruitment of police constable and increase in their age limit, sugar mill to be auctioned in public to settle the dues of employees, VRS issue among others."

Narayanasamy also said that Bedi has agreed to give financial power from April 1st 2019 and in the meanwhile, the officer needs to be trained for that purpose.

"Other issues are related to the power of elected government and the governor. I am partially happy," he told reporters.

Bedi had been at loggerheads with the Puducherry government on various issues, with Narayanasamy accusing her of delaying clearance to welfare schemes and bypassing the elected government.