Telangana Governor asks education minister to explain University Common Recruitment Board Bill

According to sources, the Governor, after the bill was sent to her for her assent along with others, had written to the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the issue.

The University Common Recruitment Board Bill is one of the eight bills pending with the Governor.

It remains to be seen if Sabita Indra Reddy would meet her or if she would depute an official to explain to her the various provisions of the bill.

TRS-Tamilisai tussle ticks on

After the ruling TRS stepped up its attack on the BJP at the Centre, the relations between the Pragati Bhavan and Raj Bhavan became strained.

As recently as in August, the Governor complained that she was not accorded proper protocol courtesies when she attended the Kakatiya University convocation. Instead of the district collector and the SP, only lower-rung officials received her which, seemed to have hurt her.

The next month, she alleged: “Why did you (KCR) deny the Governor her privilege to address the people of the state on Republic Day? Why didn’t you organise a parade? You have shown Covid-19 as the reason. But R-Day parades took place all over the country.”

Meanwhile, the state government has been very annoyed at the Governor sitting on the eight bills without giving her assent after they were passed in the Assembly.

The governor seems to have asked Sabita Indra Reddy to meet her as she probably wants to take a call on the pending bills rather than put them on hold and have fingers pointed at her for her inaction.

The Telangana University Students Joint Action Committee has warned of a Chalo Raj Bhavan rally on Wednesday if the Governor did not give her assent to the University Common Recruitment Board Bill.

The JAC alleged that the Governor was sitting tight over a bill that was intended to pave the way for direct recruitment to the posts of teaching and non-teaching staff, except in medical universities.

The committee, in a politically coloured statement, said that the Governor was acting like the Centre’s puppet by not giving her assent to the bill passed by Telangana Assembly.

The bill seeks to create a board to make appointments to all 15 universities in the state in accordance with the rules of the UGC.

The universities include Osmania, Kakatiya, Mahatma Gandhi, Telangana, Telangana Mahila, Palamuru, Satavahana, Professor Jayashankar Agriculture, and JNTU. The board will have a chairperson and four members.

The bigger picture

The governor’s letter to Sabita Indrareddy has suddenly sent the mercury in the political barometer shooting up, as it comes in the wake of the BJP’s defeat at the hands of the TRS in the Munugode by-election.

The Governor, for quite some time now, has remained KCR’s gadfly by refusing to blindly sign on the dotted line of bills. This raised eyebrows in the state government, leading the relations between her and KCR to sour.

They reached a flashpoint after she refused to give her assent to the Cabinet resolution appointing TRS leader Padi Kaushik Reddy from Karimnagar as an MLC under the Governor’s quota in September 2021. Though he became an MLC later, albeit in another category, the embers continued to smoulder between the two leaders.

What began as minor instances of communication gaps soon deteriorated, with the Governor and the ministers in the KCR Cabinet criticising each other on several issues.

The Governor had raised the protocol issues several times, including during her visit when floods ravaged the Bhadrachalam temple town in July this year.