Telangana Governor expresses doubts of her phone being tapped

Tamilisai asserts that she was assessing and analysing bills before giving her consent.

Refuting charges that her office was sitting on some Bills forwarded by the government for her assent, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has asserted that she is taking time for assessing and analysing the Bills before giving her consent.

The Governor expressed doubt that her phones were being tapped going by the manner in which posts were being made in the social media about Raj Bhavan. “It is being projected as if I am blocking the bills like setting up of a common recruitment board for filling up vacant posts in universities and other institutions. In fact, I had been insisting that the government fill up all the vacant posts in the universities since I took over as Governor of Telangana,” she said.

She asserted that she had interacted with the in-charge vice-chancellors of the universities and spent two to three hours to understand the situation in each university. It was after her insistence that the Government had appointed vice-chancellors to the universities.

Dr. Tamilisai elaborated on the manner in which she sought clarifications from the Government on the modalities relating to constitution of common recruitment board, its purpose, legal tenability and other aspects. “Why is the board being set up? Is the proposal acceptable to the UGC? Whether the recruitment will be university centric or whether it will be centralised? If that is the case there will be big confusion,” she said adding clarifications were required as the recruitment should be effective and efficient and not party oriented one.

On inquiries from the States where such boards were functioning, it was revealed that these boards were functioning under the respective public service commissions. But there was no clarity on this aspect in the Bill forwarded by the State Government. “They want my consent without clarifying certain important issues. I wanted things to be crystal clear and therefore, sought clarifications. But it is wrongly being projected that I am sitting on the Bills,” she lamented.

To queries on when she would give her assent to the bills pending with her, she said there was no time limit fixed for the institution to clear the bills. “There is no time limit fixed for the Governor to assess the Bill and give consent,” she said.

The Governor expressed concern over the name of Raj Bhavan allegedly being dragged into controversies like the recent case reported attempts by the BJP top brass to poach some MLAs of the ruling party. “I doubt by phones are being tapped as they it was mentioned that I spoke to one Tushar. I am not involved in any such attempts and I am not afraid of my phones being tapped,” she averred.