Telangana government discriminating against me: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan

HYDERABAD: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Thursday alleged that the office of the gubernatorial post was "humiliated" by the Telangana government and pointed to 'discrimination' meted out to her as a "woman governor".
She was interacting with the media on completing three years in office. Emphasising on the need for maintaining a good relationship with the Centre, she said: "When the Union home minister was addressing issues pertaining to the state at Southern Zonal Council meeting recently, why cannot the CM attend the meeting. I attended it as lieutenant governor of Puducherry. In the meeting, 75% of the issues discussed pertained to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh."
Tamilisai Soundararajan hit out at the state government on Thursday for discriminating against her as a 'woman governor' and said it has no 'respect' for the gubernatorial post.
On completion of three years in office, Tamilisai also attacked chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, asking why he did not attend the recent Southern Zonal Council meeting of CMs and Union home minister Amit Shah. Interacting with reporters at Raj Bhavan, Tamilisai said she did not want history to be written in a 'negative manner' about governor being treated badly by the state government.
Emphasising on the need for maintaining a good relationship with Centre, she said: "When the home minister was addressing issues pertaining to the state, why cannot the CM attend the meeting. I attended it as lieutenant governor of Puducherry. In the meeting, 75% of the issues discussed pertained to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. All other CMs were present, but why didn't the CM (KCR) attend the meeting."
The governor, however, refused to comment on the performance of the TRS government and the CM. "It's not my job. I will not make any political comment," she said.
Raising the issue of repeated protocol violations, she said the government had even stopped the governor's customary address to the assembly, denied her the opportunity to hoist the national flag on Republic Day and did not follow protocol during her official visits.
"Even now, protocol is not followed wherever I go. I am asking the entire nation and the world, is this right? The high office of the governor office should be respected," she said. She said she was upset that the CMO did not even care to explain why KCR's visit was cancelled for the 'At Home' event she had hosted on Independence Day.
The governor criticised TRS leaders also. "The whole problem is their CM's image is not displayed in Raj Bhavan. If I display the image, will he come down to Raj Bhavan," she wondered.
The governor said she could take action on officials for not according protocol but she did not want the issue to be further vitiated and would rather focus on solving people's issues.
She cited the example of travelling by road for eight hours to attend the tribal festival of Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara when the state government did not inform if a helicopter sought by her office would be provided or not.
The governor also took a dig at NIMS director for underdoing a surgery in a private hospital. "How can we expect poor people to seek treatment in government hospitals if those at the helm lack confidence in their own institutions? Government hospitals must be strengthened. I had requested the government to fill all vacancies in universities, but the request has never been granted."
As 'first citizen' of the state, she faced several obstacles and yet it did not stop her from discharging her duties as gvovernor. "I do not want to go into specifics. There is humiliation, but nothing can distract me from reaching out to people," she asserted.
The governor said September 17 should be observed as Telangana Liberation Day.
Tamilisai also spoke about the problems being faced by students of IIIT-Basara which she had visited recently. The university has been rocked by students' protests over poor infrastructure, lack of faculty, unhygienic conditions at hostels, etc.