Dhankhar dismayed over no live coverage of his Assembly address

Kolkata, Feb 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) Firing a fresh missile at West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday expressed dismay that his address to the Assembly was not "allowed" to be telecast live while the budget presented by Finance Minister Amit Mitra was granted the privilege.

"The State Finance Minister Dr Mitra's budget speech was live while the address of the Governor under Article 176, an important occasion, in sharp deviation to practice was not allowed live coverage and media was also kept away. Leave to judgement of the people of the State !" Dhankhar tweeted.

Banerjee, however, dodged a scribe's question on the issue, saying it was not her subject.

She said the question should be put to Speaker Biman Banerjee, who can shed light on the matter.

"That's a different issue. That Speaker can tell. You can ask the Speaker. It is not my subject," said Banerjee.

Dhankhar's February 7 address to the state Assembly was not telecast live, unlike the last few years.

The lack of television coverage of the Governor's address came in the wake of a stand-off between him and the Banerjee government over whether Dhankhar would read the full text of the speech pre-approved by the state cabinet.

Dhankhar himself had ignited the debate by commenting that he could leave out or make additions in his address to the state assembly approved by Mamata Banerjee cabinet.

He had suggested some changes to the speech, which were turned down by the state government.

Finally, Dhankhar stuck to convention and read the entire cabinet-ratified speech, that had critical references to the National Population Register, National Register for Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Source: IANS