Maha governor denied nod to travel in state plane to Dehradun

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari was scheduled to travel by a state government planeto Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Thursday, but permission was notgranted for the flight, sources said.The governor later took a commercial flight to travelto Dehradun, they said.When asked about it, Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisterAjit Pawar told reporters here that he had no clue and will beable to comment after gathering information.However, the opposition BJP in the state demanded anapology from the Uddhav Thackeray-led government over this.According to the sources, Koshyari was to leave forDehradun from Mumbai at 10 am.The governor has to attend a programme in Mussoorie onFriday.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari was scheduled to travel by a state government planeto Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Thursday, but permission was notgranted for the flight, sources said.

The governor later took a commercial flight to travelto Dehradun, they said.

When asked about it, Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisterAjit Pawar told reporters here that he had no clue and will beable to comment after gathering information.

However, the opposition BJP in the state demanded anapology from the Uddhav Thackeray-led government over this.

According to the sources, Koshyari was to leave forDehradun from Mumbai at 10 am.

The governor has to attend a programme in Mussoorie onFriday. He was scheduled to go to Dehradun first and fromthere, he was to travel to Mussoorie, the sources said.

''Accordingly, a state government plane was bookedearlier. But, the permission did not come till the lastmoment,'' a source claimed.

''Normally, governors do not wait for the permission tocome. He sat in the aircraft. The pilot then said thepermission was not given yet,'' the source said.

The governor's office later booked a seat in a privateaircraft and he left for Dehradun at around 12.15 pm, thesources said.

When asked about it, state Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said,''I have no clue about this...I will take details on reachingthe Mantralaya (state secretariat) and only then will be ableto say anything.'' Meanwhile, former Maharashtra minister and senior BJPleaderSudhir Mungantiwar said the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) government shouldapologise for ''insulting'' the governor.

If the state government has purposefully deniedpermission, it is a ''blot'' on the state's reputation, he said.

''If this embarrassment is not intentional, then thestate government should suspend the official who failed toissue the flying permission in time to the governor,'' he said.

The government should apologise and avoid furtherescalation of the issue, Mungantiwar said.

Notably, state Congress chief Nana Patole on Wednesdaysaid the MVA government has decided to move court over the'delay' by the governor in the appointment of nominatedmembers to the Legislative Council.

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government hadrecommended 12 names for appointment to the Council under thegovernor's quota to Koshyari in the first week of Novemberlast year.

However, BJP leader and former Maharashtra chiefminister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said it was thegovernor's prerogative to approve or reject names recommendedby the state government.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)