West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee had an hour-long interaction on Sunday regarding the session of the House commencing from Monday, as the State's constitutional head wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking a dialogue with her at the earliest.
The Governor had invited the Speaker for an interaction on, among other things, live coverage of his address to the House on Monday complaining that it had been "blacked out" on earlier occasions.
"There was (an) interaction at Raj Bhawan today between Governor and Assembly Speaker for an hour regarding the upcoming Assembly session," Mr. Dhankhar tweeted.
The Assembly has been summoned by the Governor at 2 p.m. on Monday after an impasse over the timing of the sitting of the House with the Governor taking the stand that a typographical error in an earlier communication that gave the unearthly 2 a.m. as the time of commencement of the budget session, could only be changed if the cabinet met again and passed another resolution correcting the time while following all constitutional procedures.
"In view of unwholesome situations during the earlier such addresses to the Assembly, including 'black out' of 'live coverages' of the address, I find it expedient to have an interaction with the Hon'ble Speaker so that sanctity of the proceedings is maintained and dignity of the office of Governor is not compromised," Dhankhar wrote to Biman Banerjee.
A copy of the letter was attached with a tweet message in the twitter handle of the Governor.
The Governor also urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a separate letter sent on Sunday, to interact with him at the earliest, saying that will hopefully help pave the way for "seamless concerted coordinated stance" with respect to his address to the Assembly.
This was in response to Ms. Banerjee's communication to Mr. Dhankhar that she will meet him after the inaugural session of the Assembly on Monday.
"Since only one day is left before the inaugural session of the Assembly, we are getting ready to welcome you in the Assembly tomorrow," she wrote, a copy of which was attached to a press release issued by the Raj Bhavan.
The release also referred to an earlier letter by the chief minister to which the governor had replied saying that he was "appalled" at her February 23 response to his invitation for an interaction, indicating “presently, I am tied up with various programmes. After the inaugural session of the Assembly I will definitely come to thank you and have a cup of tea with you.”
It said that the intent of communications by the Governor sent on February 15 and 22 “urging you (the Chief Minister) to effect response to all issues flagged thus far at the earliest and make it convenient for an interaction at Raj Bhavan anytime during the week ahead.” seemed to be lost.
The Governor complained that there was a need to end “Dialogue Deadlock”, maintaining that it "invariably (becomes) a hurdle to possible resolution of issues.”
The Governor and the State government have been at odds for a long time over issues such as the Governor calling top officials and vice chancellors of the State without intimating the State government, and Ministers in the State passing comments on a rethink on the tradition of making the Governor Chancellor of state run universities by virtue of his position. As also complaints by the State that the Governor has been delaying consent on bills such as bifurcation of Howrah Municipality.
