Jagdeep Dhankhar denies signing Howrah bill

The bill proposes to exclude some areas of the Bally Municipality from the Howrah Municipal Corporation.

Tagging Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dhankhar tweeted, “Media reports that Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has given assent for excluding areas of Bally Municipality (BM) from Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) are incorrect. No matter seeking exclusion areas of BM from HMC has ever been put @MamataOfficial for her consideration. It is under consideration under Article 200 of Constitution as inputs @MamataOfficial are awaited.”

Advocate General (AG) S N Mookherjee on Friday informed the Calcutta High Court there was no issue with the civic body elections in Howrah as the governor had given his assent to the bill. Dhankhar had earlier accused the TMC government of not providing information about the bill. Last November, the Legislative Assembly passed the bill to exclude Bally from HMC and constitute a separate municipality. The bill was later sent to the governor for his assent.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh accused Dhakhar of “acting like a BJP leader”.

“He is not ready to accept BJP’s defeat and doing what BJP leaders used to do,” said Ghosh. BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said, “The TMC did not obey the Constitution and constitutional post. They are repeatedly humiliating the governor post, the highest maximum post in a democracy and in a state. It is nothing but very unfortunate.”

Prominent lawyer and CPM leader Bikash Bhattacharya also criticized the TMC government and the governor.

“The way the state government is running is not in line with the Constitution. The way the governor wants to go is not very good. The unfortunate thing is that the ruler will get elected as soon as possible. I have chosen people who have nothing to do with law, policy or Constitution. Everything goes on one’s will and reluctance. That is the consequence,” said Bhattacharya.