Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan today lashed out at Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari on social media platform Twitter for not paying a visit to Raj Bhavan after assuming office reminding her that the Raj Bhavan was nearer than Delhi.
This came a day after Telangana government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court pleading judicial intervention over the delay in giving assent to the Bills sent to the Governor.
Dr Soundararajan wrote: “Dear Telangana chief secretary Rajbhavan is nearer than Delhi. Assuming office as CS you didn’t find time to visit Raj Bhavan officially. No protocol! No courtesy even for courtesy call. Friendly official visits and interactions would have been more helpful which you don’t even intend.”
In a second tweet, she said: “Again I remind you Rajbhavan is nearer than Delhi.” Her cryptic tweet suggested that the Governor was unhappy over the SLP filed in the apex court by the Chief Secretary on behalf of the state government. The petition made the Secretary to the Governor the respondent in the case.
Telangana Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari assumed office on 11 January. Even in the past the Governor has been very vocal about officials not following protocol during her visits to the districts.
She blamed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for officials not following protocol. However, a rapprochement was hammered out with a nudge from the High Court last month and the frosty relations between both parties seemed to be on the mend.
Following her tweet, the Governor was trolled on the social media platform for not signing ten Bills, seven of which are pending since September. The state government cited the Constitutional impasse to seek the Supreme Court’s intervention to get the Bills passed since Dr Soundararajan neither signed the Bills nor did she decline to give assent or returned them.