Chandigarh, Feb 14 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday raised doubts over the “criteria” for appointing governors and the state’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party demanded that Governor Banwarilal should be immediately shifted elsewhere, as the row between the two escalated.
Mann hit back at Purohit a day after the governor questioned him on the process of selecting 36 government principals for a training seminar held recently in Singapore Punjab, saying that he had received complaints about “malpractices.” At a session for new MLAs, Mann said only “the elected” should take decisions and those who are “selected” should not interfere – a dig at the Governor without naming him.
And replying to the Governor’s letter made public Monday, the chief minister indirectly questioned Purohit’s credentials for the post he holds.
“Before asking the state government to explain the criteria for sending principals to Singapore, the Governor must explain the qualifications being adopted by the Government of India for appointing a person to this coveted post,” a state government statement said, quoting the CM.
“You asked me about the basis for the selection of principals for sending them to Singapore for training,” Mann wrote in his letter to Purohit.
He added that the people of Punjab want to know on what basis the central government appoints governors to various states in the absence of any fixed criteria, stressing that there are “no fixed qualifications” laid down in the Constitution. “Please increase the knowledge of Punjabis with a reply,” the letter said.
Simultaneously, his party launched a scathing attack on the Governor.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang accused Purohit of working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party and demanded that he should be “immediately” shifted out of the state. PTI CHS VSD ASH ASH
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