Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was scheduled to travel by a state government plane to Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Thursday, but permission was not granted for the flight. According to sources, Koshyari could not fly in a state-owned aircraft as Raj Bhavan’s official request was pending with the chief minister office (CMO) for approval. Consequently, the governor took a commercial flight to Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on Thursday morning. Insiders at Raj Bhavan as well as in the government confirmed the development. However, there was no immediate official response from Raj Bhavan and CMO.
The chief minister office (CMO) is supposed to clear all the requests related to use of the government aircraft. The request from Raj Bhavan was pending for approval till Wednesday night. The governor’s office was also informed about the status of the request, the officials said.Chief secretary Sanjay Kumar said he didn’t have any information about the request. “I don’t know anything about this. CMO and the state aviation department deal with these issues,” Kumar said.“As per the established procedure the file was sent to the chief minister’s office for approval,” said Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary, state aviation department. “The governor is expected to attend the 122th IAS induction programme at Lal Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, on Friday and he was supposed to fly in a government aircraft today [Thursday] morning to Dehradun and had planned to reach Mussoorie by road.
An official request for the aircraft was sent to the state government. When the governor reached Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 10am, he was informed that the aircraft doesn’t have the permission for take off,” said an official, requesting anonymity. The governor then decided to take a commercial flight and left to Dehradun as per his planned schedule, he added. “We had received a request from Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. It was sent to the CMO immediately for approval. Till Wednesday night, the file was pending with the CMO and Raj Bhavan was informed about its status,” said a senior official, wishing not to be named.As per the procedure, CMO approves these requests and inform the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCI) which gives further clearances, the officials said.Former chief minister and leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis slammed the MVA government over the incident. “We have never seen such an egoistic government. [Chief minister] Uddhav Thackeray should not consider government machinery as his personal property. It is state property,” Fadnavis said.