Governor unnecessarily delaying Assembly session, says CM

KOLKATA: Blaming Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar of 'non-cooperation', Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the former was 'unnecessarily delaying the process' to convene an Assembly session. Earlier, the Governor had sent back her recommendation to convene an Assembly session from March 7.

"This is the first time the Governor has sent back the file regarding the Assembly session. I, being the Chief Minister, was the signatory of the file that was sent to him. He (the Governor) has asked for sending the file after Cabinet approval. The Chief Minister is the voice of the Cabinet. I do not know why he has been unnecessarily making an issue of this and delaying the process," Banerjee said after chairing the Cabinet meeting at Nabanna.

She reiterated that maintaining courtesy, the matter was passed in the Cabinet on Monday along with the Governor's address, the Budget and the starting of the session had been sent again.

The state intends to start the Budget session of the state Assembly on March 7. Dhankhar had reasoned that he returned the file as the recommendation was not made by the state Cabinet as per the norm.

On January 31, Banerjee had accused Dhankhar of tapping phones and threatening government officers on several occasions, and had blocked him from her Twitter account .

She had said that she had written at least four letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about him (Jagdeep Dhankhar) but he had not been withdrawn.

"He is not listening and has been threatening everyone . I have even been to him and spoke with him. We have been patiently suffering for the past one-and-a-half year. He has not cleared several files and has kept most of them pending," Banerjee had said.