AIADMK slams Pondy govt over delay in dredging ops in estuary

The opposition AIADMK today flayed the territorial government for the "delay" in carrying out dredging operations at the estuary off the coast here, which has affected fishing activities in the Union Territory.
AIADMK legislature wing leader A Anbalagan told reporters here that the "turf war between the Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and the Congress government on assigning the work for dredging the estuary had been causing intolerable delay in fishing operations."
He stated that when the dredging work was done by private players, the Lt Governor intervened and handed the job to the Dredging Corporation of India in December last year.

"The operations by the corporation did not bear fruit as there was no successful desilting of the sand and fishermen had not been able to venture into the sea for fishing activities for nearly five months now," he alleged.
The AIADMK leader also sought the government to pay a compensation of Rs 30,000 per month for each fishing vessel owner.
Criticising the Lt Governor and the Chief Minister for paying "lip service" on financial allocation during their visits to Delhi, he said, "they had placed before the Union Ministers reports highlighting the poor financial status of the Puducherry government."
On the Union Budget, Anbalagan said the budget had let down Puducherry with allocation of funds being retained at the same level as in the previous years.

He attributed this failure to the unending differences between the Lt Governor and Chief Minister over constitutional and administrative powers to them.