Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan defends her decision to go slow on pending Bills

All the Bills were reportedly kept pending because of this single legislation which has raised doubts

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has defended her decision to go slow on eight Bills passed by Telangana Assembly in September, saying she had wide-ranging powers and that she will work within the Constitutional framework. 

Ms. Soundararajan made the comment in an informal chat with media persons at ` Diwali Milan’ with the public at Raj Bhavan on Monday. The Governor also said she will take a decision on the Bills shortly. The question of approval for Bills was within her ambit. She was not opposed to anyone, Dr. Soundararajan said.   

Sources said the law department was waiting to issue gazette notification as soon as the Governor approved. But, the delay has given rise to speculation about a fresh standoff between Raj Bhavan and the State government. 

While six Bills related to amendments to existing Acts, two of them were new legislations on setting up a common recruitment board for faculty of universities and upgrading forest college and research institute as forest university at Mulug in Siddipet district.

Also Read | 8 bills incl. varsities common recruitment board passed in 2 hours in Assembly

The amendments were made to The Telangana Goods and Services Taxes Act, The Telangana Public Employment Act, The Telangana Motor Vehicle Taxes Act, The Azamabad Industrial Area (Regularisation of Lease) Act, The Telangana Municipal Regulations Act and The Telangana Private Universities Act. Of them, the Governor was said to have okayed the Bill on GST. 

The Governor’s office had generally returned the Bills to law department with her signatures within a week or ten days. But, it did not happen this time for more than a month owing to some contentious issues reportedly in the legislation on Azamabad industrial area. It was argued that this Bill was supposed to be referred to the President Draupadi Murmu for her assent but officials in industries department have denied the necessity. They claimed the Presidential assent was required only if a financial commitment on the part of government was involved. But, the issue here was about regularising a lease agreement. It was sufficient if the Governor merely endorsed the legislation.