State to seek report from Koshyari’s secy
MUMBAI: The state general administration department will seek a report from governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s secretary Santosh Kumar over Thursday’s incident, when Koshyari was not allowed to fly to Uttarakhand in the state’s aircraft, chief secretary Sanjay Kumar told Hindustan Times on Friday.
According to Raj Bhavan, Koshyari had to face an embarrassment on Thursday as he went to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) and boarded the state’s six-seater Cessna Citation XLS aircraft to travel to Dehradun, but had to deplane and take a commercial flight, as the chief minister’s office (CMO) had not approved the use.
After the incident, the CMO on Thursday blamed the Raj Bhavan secretariat, saying the latter should have ensured they had the permission to use the aircraft before the governor’s departure from his official residence. Indicating action against the officials for not informing the governor about permission updates, the CMO also said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had already directed the administration to fix the responsibility for the negligence on the officials concerned.
Sanjay Kumar said on Friday: “A report will be sought from the governor’s secretary (Santosh Kumar) over the incident. The state aviation department secretary will be directed to seek the report and further decisions will be taken by the state government.”
On Friday, Thackeray avoided reacting to the controversy and remarked the government would be developing an air strip at Palghar, so everyone’s aircraft can land there. He was responding to a question over the incident. Thackeray also chose to use a helipad at Mahalaxmi racecourse instead of the one at Raj
Bhavan (Governor’s house at Malabar Hill) following the aircraft controversy, the officials said.
The incident, however, is likely to worsen the already strained relations between the Thackeray government and Koshyari. According to senior government officials, Koshyari and Thackeray are not on talking terms beyond customary exchanges for the past many months. Recently, they met at the state’s Republic Day function at Shivaji Park, Dadar, but there was hardly any interaction, the officials said. “He [Uddhav Thackeray] should understand we also have some political compulsions. The governor told this to Rashmi, Thackeray’s wife during a brief interaction,” said a senior bureaucrat, requesting anonymity.
Koshyari was referring to the appointment of 12 members of the legislative council under his quota. The state cabinet had made the recommendation to Koshyari to nominate them to the Upper House as per the norms on November 6, last year. However, he is yet to take the decision, which has upset the chief minister and MVA leaders.
The chief minister has not visited Raj Bhavan, official residence-cum-office of the governor, for nine months. Last time, he called on Koshyari after being elected as the member of the legislative council on May 18. His wife and son and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray were also present.
Before that, Thackeray called on the governor at Raj Bhavan on May 1. The meeting lasted for about 20 minutes. It was held a day after Koshyari wrote to the Election commission of India (ECI), requesting it to hold biennial elections to the nine vacant seats of the council at the earliest to facilitate Thackeray’s election to the Upper House of the state legislature. The biennial elections for the nine vacant seats were postponed in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Later, Thackeray also skipped a meeting called by the governor to review the Covid-19 pandemic on May 21, the officials said. Meanwhile, Koshyari attended the 122th IAS induction programme at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, on Friday. He also met Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and discussed the ongoing rescue operation following the glacier disaster. The governor was expected to return in the state government’s aircraft, but now he will be returning to Mumbai in a commercial flight on Saturday.