West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose was urged by the Trinamool Congress to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to resolve the impasse over bills pending with Raj Bhavan after the ruling passed by the Supreme Court in a similar case.
The apex court on Friday asked Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi to hold a meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin to end the impasse over pending bills. Ravi and Stalin have been locked in a war of attrition over numerous issues. The governor of West Bengal also had several run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee government over various issues.
Bose is acting in a partisan manner, creating uncertainties at various places including universities, the ruling party of West Bengal alleged. Defending Bose, the opposition BJP said the situation in Tamil Nadu cannot be equated with West Bengal and the governor had to exercise caution by resisting attempts by the ruling dispensation to use its majority in legislature to change established norms to suit its interests.
Veteran TMC leader and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sobvandeb Chattopadhyay said Bose has been withholding several bills passed by the assembly including one seeking to make the chief minister the chancellor of state universities instead of the governor.
"Even in the case of bills on the composition of search committees for vice-chancellors, the honourable supreme court had asked the governor to resolve the matter with the chief minister but he is in no mood for doing so," Chattopadhyay told PTI. His act has created impasse and uncertainties on university campuses, he said.
Education Minister Bratya Basu also told reporters on Friday that the governor should hold talks with the chief minister to resolve the matter. Senior leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, "We are tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. Even our chief minister met the governor at Raj Bhavan over the issue." BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, however, asserted that by not giving assent to bills like appointing the chief minister as the chancellor, he has proved himself as non-partisan.
"By using brute majority in the House, the ruling TMC attempted to subvert well-established provisions to suit its own narrow agenda. The governor, to safeguard the constitution, judged every bill and either sought some clarification or returned the bill or referred the draft to the President," Bhattacharya said. The West Bengal governor on November 8 said no Bill was pending with Raj Bhavan, except those that needed clarification from the state or were sub-judice.
"It is clear.....12 bills are pending for clarification from the state government, one has been assented by the Hon'ble President with certain conditions and two others are awaiting Hon'ble President's consideration," Bose had said in a statement on November 8. The governor had made this statement a day after Speaker Biman Banerjee said 15 bills remained unresolved from 2021.
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