Bengal Guv working beyond his constitutional limits: Assembly Speaker

Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) With West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose continuing with his district tours, interacting with the people affected by the ongoing clashes over the forthcoming panchayat polls, Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay on Saturday launched a scathing attack against the Governor in this matter.

"The state has seen many Governors before. Many of them have worked  together with the government for the development of the state. But I have never seen a Governor acting in such a manner. He is over active on certain issues. He is forgetting that ensuring law and order is the prime duty of the state government.

"It is not an area where the Governor should step in. In many cases he is working beyond his constitutional limits. He has opened the complaint book on his own. Such things happen in no other state," Bandopadhyay said.

Even as the Speaker made the remarks, the Governor is on a tour to the troubled pockets of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district, which had been in the national headlines since the nomination phase for the rural civic body polls because of continuing clashes between Trinamool Congress and BJP supporters.

The Governor too launched a scathing attack against the state government for the continuing incidents of violence and clashes over the panchayat polls.

"So many reports of violence have come from Cooch Behar district. I wish to meet the victims and their family members personally. If people want, they can stop my convoy and talk to me. Such incidents of violence in Bengal will no longer be tolerated. Strong action will be taken against the hooligans who are responsible for this containing violence," the Governor said.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that Bandopadhyay has criticised the role of the Governor. Bose's predecessor and the current Vice-President of India, Jagdeep Dhankar, also faced the Speaker's wrath on various occasions during his tenure.

The Speaker had especially objected to Dhankar holding press conferences within the Assembly premises and firing salvos against the state government and the ruling party from there.