Raj Bhavan said that among the bills received, three were cleared, two were referred to the President, and one was rejected.
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan. (Supplied)
Following a months-long stand-off between the Telangana government and its Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan over the issue of the latter not granting assent to the bills passed by the state Assembly, the Telangana Raj Bhavan has clarified that as of date, no bills were pending with the Governor’s office.
In a communique on Monday, 10 July, the Raj Bhavan said that among bills received for the Governor’s assent, three were cleared, two were referred to the President’s office, and one was rejected.
The rest of the bills have been returned to the state government seeking an adequate explanation, it added.
The clarification was issued after a vernacular news channel on Monday said that the Governor would clear the pending bills with her within a fortnight.
This was construed as an indication that the gap between the Raj Bhavan and Pragati Bhavan — the official residence and principal workplace of the chief minister of Telangana — was narrowing.
The communique is also being seen as a reaction to IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao stating that it would have been better if the prime minister told the Governor to clear the bill pertaining to the appointments of the university faculty before accusing the state government of not filling them.
The bill that KTR was referring to was the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill of 2022, which was one of the two bills that the Governor sent to the President for her assent.
The other bill was the University of Forestry Telangana Bill of 2022.
In March this year, the Telangana government moved the Supreme Court as the Governor was taking a long time in clearing bills, with 10 bills pending with the Governor at the time.
It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu government found a workaround to this the very next month when the state Assembly passed a resolution to put RN Ravi — another BJP-appointed Governor in another South Indian state who is at loggerheads with the ruling dispensation — on a timeline.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Governor back then lashed out at the chief secretary when she filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Governor, seeking a direction from the court to the Governor to clear the pending bills.
The Governor also found fault with the chief secretary for not meeting her after assuming office.
The rapport between the Governor and the chief minister was stretched further when the government did not invite her to the unveiling of the world’s “tallest” BR Ambedkar statue in Hyderabad on 14 April.
Annoyed by the snub, the Governor expressed her dissatisfaction over the way she was being treated by the government.
“Had the government invited me, I would have gone there. Ambedkar had fought for the cause of women. But the Telangana government chose to insult a woman, the Governor,” she said.
The Supreme Court had also sought the Centre’s position on the Telangana government’s plea.
The 10 bills of contention:
May 05, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
May 04, 2024
