Jharkand govt hands memo for Governor to Raj Bhawan security after failing to get appointment

Ranchi: A five-member delegation of the Jharkhand government’s state coordination committee (SCC) had to hand over a memorandum for the governor to the security guard at his office after failing to secure an appointment with him.
The memorandum urged Governor CP Radhakrishnan to send observations on three “important bills” that had been returned by the Raj Bhavan.

“We had emailed and also given a letter at Raj Bhavan on Friday seeking an appointment with the governor on Sunday. But there was no one available at the office and we had to hand over the memorandum at the gate,” said Vinod Pandey, an SSC member and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader.

“We want to meet the Governor and apprise him about the three important bills – 1932 Khatiyan (land survey) based definition of locals’ bill, the anti-lynching bill and the bill pertaining to raising the reservation quota of OBC communities. All these bills had been returned by the Raj Bhavan without sending the necessary observations of the Governor (both former Governor Ramesh Bais and incumbent CP Radhakrishnan). We want the Raj Bhavan to send the observations so that the necessary corrections can be done and reintroduced in the Assembly and send it again to Raj Bhavan,” he added.

The SCC members said the Raj Bhavan has not mentioned the specific objections in the Bills, violating Article 200 of the constitution.

The SSC has been formed by the three ruling ally parties in Jharkhand – Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JMM. It may be noted that Radhakrishnan is a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and has also served as the BJP state president in Tamil Nadu.

The panel accused the governor of working at the behest of “a particular party or person”.

“It appears the Governor does not want local and reservation policies to be formulated,” Pandey said. They want the Governor to clear his stand on the three bills passed by the state Assembly, he added.

State Congress chief Rajesh Thakur said this is the first time that leaders of the ruling alliance are not given time by the Raj Bhawan. “However, Opposition leaders freely enter the Governor’s House and set their agenda,” Thakur said.