Chennai: Fisheries minister D. Jayakumar on Wednesday defended Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s review meeting with officials, saying he saw “no inner agenda” in the meeting as the constitutional head of the state was interested only in getting to know things first hand.
As Opposition parties criticised the Governor’s action, Jayakumar said there was nothing wrong in the meeting since Purohit did not take any policy decision but only reviewed progress of Smart City, a project being implemented by the Centre.
“Governor did not take any policy decision. And moreover he just reviewed the progress of a project that too progress of smart city being implemented by the Union Government. I don’t think there is any inner agenda in his meeting. The AIADMK has been a vociferous supporter of state autonomy and would continue to be so,” Jayakumar said.
Asked whether the Governor would have taken such a review meeting if J. Jayalalithaa were alive, Jayakumar said it depends on the person who holds the post of Governor. “There is no comparison. One governor will do and the other many not. He just wanted to inspect and review the projects. He wants to check the progress personally and there is nothing wrong in it,” he said.
While most ministers and AIADMK leaders defended the move, the lone discordant note came from Ramanathapuram MP Anwar Raja who accused the Union Government of trying to run state governments through Governors.
“Certainly there are violations of established procedures and there is no precedence of Governors reviewing progress of government projects. The Governor’s action is against state autonomy,” Anwar Raja said. He also said the Governor should stop “acting against democracy” and should snatch the rights of ministers by doing their job. “Ministers should review, not the Governor. The Governor should do his job and let ministers and others do theirs,” Anwar Raja said.
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