A new State government-Governor faceoff seems to be cropping up in Bihar where the Raj Bhavan reversed an order of the administration to freeze the bank accounts of two officials of the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur.
The Nitish Kumar government appeared to be heading for a showdown with Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar over the matter.
What's the matter?
The Bihar education department on Thursday (August 17) halted the salaries of the vice chancellor and pro-VC after they allegedly failed to inspect the educational institutions under their jurisdiction and also skipped the department’s review meeting, a senior official of the department said.
A day after, Principal Secretary to the governor, Robert L Chongthu, wrote to the bank and directed it to defreeze the officials’ accounts with immediate effect.
In a letter to the education department, the Principal Secretary wrote that its act to freeze the accounts was “arbitrary”.
“Under Section 54 of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976, the state government has power to audit the universities, but your act to freeze the financial powers and bank accounts of both the office bearers is arbitrary and beyond jurisdiction. This act of yours seems to be an attack on autonomy of the university and you have encroached upon the powers of the chancellor,” Chongthu wrote.
The chancellor (governor) has ordered that "these orders may be withdrawn and these types of unwarranted acts may be avoided in future", it stated.
Political war of words
A political battle has begun with the occurrence of the incident with the ruling Mahagathbandhan slamming the “interference of the Governor” and the Opposition BJP backing the Raj Bhavan’s move. The saffron party held the Nitish Kumar government for "collapse of education system" in the state.
“Since Nitish Kumar has miserably failed in improving the state's education system, he is now creating a situation of showdown with the governor who is also the chancellor of the universities. The CM is ignoring autonomy of universities and colleges,” Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said.
RJD’s spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary said that the state government is trying to improve the quality of education in the state, including higher education.
“The Raj Bhavan should not intervene with the functioning of an elected government and should avoid such confrontations,” he said.
Centre-AAP tussle in Delhi
There has been a constant tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and the LG. The latest has been over the services in the national capital. The Parliament passed the Delhi Services Bill in the Monsoon Session this month after the Centre brought in an Ordinance overruling the Supreme Court order which provided for a new National Capital Civil Service Authority for transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the DANICS cadre.
Other state govt-Governor tussles
Similar tussles have been witnessed in Tamil Nadu also where the MK Stalin-led DMK government has accused the Governor of stalling the Bills passed by the Assembly. Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has long had tussles with the Governor over several issues.
(With PTI inputs)
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