CM, ministers walk out of planning meet, blame L-G for excluding Oppn

The board meeting was convened to finalise the draft plan of the UT, projecting the financial requirements of every department. It would then be forwarded to the Centre for sanction of the projected amount for the fiscal 2019-2020. Minutes after the meeting chaired by Bedi began, Narayanasamy protested the non-inclusion of the leaders of DMK, AIADMK and BJP and walked out. He was accompanied by his ministers.

He claimed he had not received any reply to a letter he wrote to Bedi on Friday against the exclusion of leaders of these parties from the board, pointing out that they had been invited to such meetings in the past. “We wanted the meeting to be put off and reconvened after including the legislators of the Opposition,” he said. Speaking to reporters, Congress MP Vaithilingam said he had made it clear to Bedi at the start of the meeting that as the board chairman she should ensure the participation of opposition parties in the deliberations. AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP N Gokulakrishnan also protested Bedi’s action. “This is not right and to show my protest against the lapse, I staged a walkout,” he said. Bedi later told reporters that she had no objection to inviting any legislators. “The file for co-opting the members should be presented to the secretary (planning) and then to the chief secretary before it comes to me,” she said. This procedure was not adopted earlier, she said. There was confusion in the past on the structure of the board as some MLAs were included as members at one time and not on other occasions, she said. Bedi added the meeting was postponed to July 13.

In a whatsapp message, Bedi said the annual meeting of the state planning board was convened to recommend the size of the annual budget of the Union Territory to the Centre. She said that the board could not carry on its proceedings as it was abruptly disrupted.This has happened in full view of all secretaries, heads of departments and other important functionaries of the government.