Even as Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan cleared three out of the nine Bills submitted to her just before Supreme Court heard the state government’s plea on the pending Bills, the ruling BRS is grossly unhappy, particularly because the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 is still stuck in the pipeline with elections in the state due in December.
Of the Bills pending with the governor, Dr Soundararajan gave her assent to three, two were reserved for consideration and assent of the President by the governor and three were under her active consideration. She has also sought certain clarifications for the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2023. The governor’s secretary submitted before the court one of the Bills had not yet been submitted to the Governor by the law department.
Most of the pending Bills were sent to the governor by the state government in September 2022 which had been one of the key reasons for the strained relations between Dr Soundararajan and the BRS government. But the one which rankles the ruling party the most is the delay over Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Bill, 2022 which would have paved the way for the recruitment of university teachers to fill up vacancies.
Although the state government led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has come up with welfare schemes and a number of irrigation projects in the past eight years and fulfilled the demands raised during the struggle for statehood, the youths of the state are restless over lack of job opportunities in the public sector. This particular Bill for filling up the vacancies in the universities is quite important in this context, but the BRS has failed to get it past the governor so far. BRS working president KT Rama Rao took to twitter to vent his anger against the governor over her lackadaisical approach to clearance of the pending bill.
“Sad state of affairs where top constitutional posts have become political tools in the hands of the Union government. Have a look at all Non-BJP governed states; you will see a similar clear pattern of non cooperation and vengefulness. Is this the cooperative federalism model and team India’s spirit that’s going to help the nation grow and prosper?” wrote Rao on his twitter account. He was referring to Tamil Nadu where the Assembly passed a resolution seeking a time frame for the governor to clear Bills.
BRS spokesperson M Krishank didn’t mince words when he wrote, “You may deceive Hon’ble Supreme Court but Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan garu you cannot deceive the youth of Telangana. They are keenly watching how and in whose directions you are delaying the Common Recruitment Board Bill to halt job recruitments.”