Maha crisis: Governor asks for details of orders post rebellion

 

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked the state chief secretary to provide complete information of all Government Resolutions (GRs) and circulars issued by the state government from June 22-24.

The governor has asked for files according to a letter issued by his Principal Secretary Santosh Kumar to the chief secretary. The directive comes in the middle of political crisis triggered by a revolt in the Shiv Sena.

The direction to provide information comes after departments, mostly controlled by ruling allies NCP and the Congress, issued government orders for the release of funds worth hundreds of crores from June 22-24 for various development-related works.

The Shiv Sena, which heads the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, saw a rebellion in its legislative ranks on June 21 when cabinet minister Eknath Shinde landed in Surat from Mumbai and then left for Guwahati with party MLAs supporting him. The letter states that the governor has asked for complete background information about the GRs, circulars, issued by the state government between June 22 and 24 as also the deliberations, decisions, taken by the state government on these days for being placed before him as mandated under Article 167 of the Constitution.

Article 167 deals with duties of Chief Minister in furnishing information to Governor regarding decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to administrative affairs. In a letter to Koshyari earlier, Pravin Darekar, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, said, “Some 160 government resolutions were issued by the MVA in the last 48 hours, which look suspicious. I request you to intervene in this matter and put a curb on it.” The Governor sought the information from the chief secretary following the letter from Darekar, a senior BJP legislator.

Between June 20 and 23, the departments issued as many as 182 GRs, while on June 17, they passed 107 such orders. In official language, these are called government resolutions or GRs, which are essentially an approval order sanctioning release of funds for development-related works.