Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has written to President Droupadi Murmu alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his minister's foreign visit was not conveyed to him "officially".
According to sources from Raj Bhawan, Governor Khan wrote to the President in the second week of October that he was not informed about the chief minister's foreign visit for October first week.
This is the recent development on the ongoing tussle between the Kerala Governor and the Chief Minister.
Earlier, an October 18 press release from the Chief Minister's Office shared the details of Kerala's official delegation's visit to the European countries which was aimed at advancing the progress of the state.
According to the press release, the visit was aimed at increasing cooperation in the fields of study and research, finding new job opportunities for Keralites, helping non-residents, exchanging ideas with the Malayali community and attracting more investors to the state.
The group visited Finland, Norway and the UK.
On Thursday, Governor Khan had challenged the chief minister stating that he would resign if the latter could show him any one example of his political interference in the appointments of the Vice-Chancellor.
"He is saying that I am doing this (action against VCs) to bring RSS people. If I have nominated even one person, not just of RSS, any person, using my authority, then I will resign. Will he (CM) be able to resign if he is not able to prove it?" Khan said addressing the media in the national capital.
This came after CM Vijayan lashed out at Khan for seeking the resignation of vice-chancellors of nine universities in the state and said that the Governor was misusing his powers as the Chancellor of varsities.
Khan had sought the resignation of VCs of the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kannur University, APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, University of Calicut and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the powers and duties conferred on the Governor by the Constitution are to preserve the dignity of the State, the people and the Constitution.
The powers and duties conferred on the Governor by the Constitution are to preserve the dignity of the State, the people and the Constitution," he had said, adding "According to the governor, the appointments of the VCs were made in all these nine universities without following the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules. In all nine universities, the Governor is the appointing authority. If the VC appointments were made illegally, then the primary responsibility lies with the appointing Governor himself. According to the logic of the Governor himself, should the VCs resign? It's good to think about that too."
The Chief Minister had further said that Governor or chancellor has no right to remove vice-chancellors and there is no such option in the University Act.
( With inputs from ANI )
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