Amid SC hearing, Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan okays 3 bills, 7 still pending

HYDERABAD: After keeping ten bills pending, seven of them for more than six months, governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday cleared three of these. The move came within weeks of the K Chandrasekhar Rao government approaching the Supreme Court against Soundararajan's reluctance to take a call on legislations passed in the state assembly since September 2022.
The governor's lawyer gave a letter to the apex court on Monday during a hearing, stating that the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Telangana Municipalities (Amendment Bill), 2023 and The Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, 2023 had been cleared. Of the remaining seven bills, two have been sent to the President for her assent while another three are "under active consideration of the governor".

The letter also stated that the governor wanted some clarifications on the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2023 while the Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill 2022 had not been received from the government.
Sources in the government, however, said that it had been sent back by the governor to the law department for clarifications. KCR and Soundararajan have been at loggerheads for more than three years now. While the state government has accused the governor of playing politics and not remaining neutral, the governor has alleged that protocol has not been maintained and the Raj Bhavan not been given due respect.
When the governor did not clear bills, the state approached the Supreme Court. Sources also said the governor is yet to approve the bills that matter most to the government. With assembly elections later in the year, the state government wants to start recruitment in state universities with the help of the common recruitment bill which envisages setting up of a board to recruit teachers.
The governor had initially sought the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) opinion on it and later sent it to the President. Similarly, the Azamabad bill is crucial as the state wants to sell the land and generate revenue. The land was initially leased to industrial units, many of which have either shut down or using it for different purposes.
The Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, enhancing the minimum term to move no-confidence motion against municipal chairpersons and mayors from three to four years is also important. About 20 chairpersons representing BRS are facing no-confidence motions across the state, which the government is keen to ward off at least until assembly elections are held.