Governor's speech : Raj Bhawan and government appear to be

The Raj Bhawan and TMC government appear to be heading for another showdown with West Bengal Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar asserting on Thursday that he will "create history" with his address to the Assembly at the beginning of the budget session.

The budget session of the state assembly begins on Friday.

Dhankhar said he is hopeful that his inputs have been included in the address.

The TMC was quick to return the fire. It criticised the governor for deliberately "creating problems between the Raj Bhawan and the state government".

"This is for the first time that I will address the assembly in the budget session. My predecessors who had addressed the Assembly at the budget sessions were born before Independence. I will be the first governor who was born after Independence to deliver the address. I will be creating history tomorrow," Dhankhar told reporters here.

 

He said the state government is well within it's rights to put forth their achievements in the governor's address to the House.

"But as governor, as constitutional head of the state, I have also given my suggestions. I won't disclose what were those suggestions. I think it will be incorporated in my speech. I will act as per the Constitution ," he said.

His comments came a day after he had said that he might make changes to the speech he is scheduled to read out at the beginning of the Budget session on February 7.

The comment by Dhankhar, who has had several run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee government, drew sharp reactions from state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who said the governor was deliberately trying to create problems.

"We all know he is deliberately trying to create trouble and that is why he has crossed his brief on several occasions. He is acting as per orders of the central government," Bhattacharya said.

According to norms, the governor reads out the speech prepared by the state government during the budget session and contains the government's policy decisions.

A senior TMC leader said as per norms anything read out by the governor apart from what is written in the printed speech, which has been approved by the government, will not be recorded.

A press statement by the Raj Bhawan said that the government has communicated that the text of the address sent by it is the final one.

The statement said that the governor would address the issue in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and he will never cross the Lakshman Rekha.

The development came just days after Mamata Banerjee government in a sign of reconciliation between the state administration and the Raj Bhavan decided to provide Dhankhar with a helicopter for his travel to Santiniketan on Thursday.

On several occasions last year the state government had rejected Dhankhar's request for a chopper to travel to Santiniketan, Domkal and Farakka.

Referring to it, Dhankar said "On previous occasions I had asked for a chopper but was not provided by the state government. I had not asked for the chopper for my own luxury, but to travel to far away distances".