West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will replace Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as Chancellor of all the state-run health, agricultural, and animal & fishery sciences universities.
A formal decision was taken by the state cabinet on Monday afternoon to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as the visitor of private universities operating in the state.
At a previous meeting on May 26, it was decided to replace Dhankhar as the Chancellor of state universities. Monday’s decision was an extension of that decision.
“The monsoon session of the West Bengal assembly is scheduled to start from June 13. The amendment bills on this account will likely be tabled in the monsoon session for clearance. Once the bills are cleared, they will be sent to the Governor for his consent,” said a member of the Cabinet.
However, realising that the Governor will likely withhold his consent, the state government is prepared to bring in an ordinance.
The monsoon session of the assembly is expected to be quite stormy over two issues: The bills for replacing the Governor with the Chief Minister as university Chancellor or visitor, and the ongoing West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment scam.
The Trinamool Congress leadership has already instructed its legislators to maintain their cool while countering the jibes of the BJP legislators and avoid any kind of untoward scene as had happened in the previous session of the assembly where the ruling and opposition MLAs got into scuffles. A number of BJP legislators including the Leader of Opposition were suspended by the Speaker.
Latest, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and discussed with him various issues concerning the state.
Dhankhar met Shah a day after he said there is no rule of law in West Bengal as it is being governed by a “ruler”. “The Governor of West Bengal, Shri @jdhankhar1 met Union Home Minister Shri @AmitShah,” the home hinister’s office tweeted.
On Sunday, Dhankhar said in Rajasthan that he has witnessed terrible situation and challenges while being the governor of West Bengal. “I have seen terrible situation and challenges being a governor. I have seen the rule going beyond constitutional system. I have seen a situation where there is no rule of law, but a ruler,” Dhankhar said during his visit to Udaipur where he attended several events.
On May 29, the governor had said that “constitutional authorities in the state are under attack” as judiciary’s decisions to order CBI investigations into multiple cases in West Bengal is being criticised.
“The honourable Member of Parliament crossed the red line,” he said, without naming TMC MP and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
Abhishek Banerjee had recently said, “I feel ashamed to say that there are one or two people in the judiciary who are hand-in-gloves and have a tacit understanding and are ordering CBI investigation in every case. This is just 1 per cent of the judiciary.”
