Congress and CPIM today accused Himachal Governor Acharya Devvrat of trying to run a "parallel government" in the state after he convened a meeting of top bureaucrats including secretaries and heads of the departments at Raj Bhawan.
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president, Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said that "Instead of summoning the officers to Raj Bhawan, the governor should have invited the concerned ministers to discuss important issues of serious public concern".
Sukhu said that the post of the governor is a constitutional post and did not behove his status and stature to call the meeting of top bureaucrats, give them guidelines and seek report on their functioning.
"Being the constitutional head of the state, the Governor cannot directly interfere in the functioning of the democratically elected state government and calling a meeting of heads of government departments does not come under its purview," he said, adding that such interventions would set bad precedent and would not augur well for our democratic setup.
Yesterday, the Governor had convened a meeting of secretaries and other stakeholders at Raj Bhawan and urged for launching active social campaigns for creating awareness about increasing drug menace, caste discrimination, organic farming and environmental issues, which are "crucial" for the development of the state.
In Dharamshasla, reacting to the Governor's move, senior Congress leader Choudhary Chander Kumar accused the Governor of trying to run a "parallel government" in the state by "bypassing" the Virbhadra Singh-led regime.
"The Governor of Himachal Pradesh is bypassing the constitutionally elected Chief Minister of the state. He is trying to run a parallel government," Kumar who is Chairman of Himachal Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation said in Dharamsala.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was in Delhi yesterday.
The state committee of Himachal CPI(M) has also criticised the move of the Governor and accused him of "running a parallel government" violating the constitutional provisions.
In a statement issued here today the state committee said that by asking the officers to report to him, the governor was sending a wrong message that "he is working as an agent of the Centre".
The Governor was constitutional head of the state but he cannot issue any instructions to the democratically elected government and at the most refer any matter back for reconsideration, the CPM release added.
The HPCC president said that the meeting called by Governor amounts to "interference in the functioning" of the government as it is the responsibility of concerned ministers to run their departments and the Governor should have sought report regarding the functioning of these departments from them.
