Kolkata, March 13 – Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, met the newly appointed 22nd Governor, R.N. Ravi, on Friday, and urged him to take action against Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and acting Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey over the alleged breach of protocol during the recent visit of President Droupadi Murmu to the state.
“I have requested the Governor to take steps to protect the constitutional and democratic procedures in the state. At the same time, I requested him to take action against the Chief Secretary and the acting Director General of Police over the breach of protocol during the recent visit of the President of India to the state, which was essentially an insult to her,” Adhikari told mediapersons after meeting the Governor at Lok Bhavan.
According to the Leader of the Opposition, the entire state had been embarrassed following the developments during the President’s visit. “The state government did not bother to respect and follow the protocol during the President’s visit to West Bengal. The pillars of democracy are collapsing in West Bengal. I updated the Governor about the situation in the state,” he added.
Incidentally, Adhikari could not attend Ravi’s oath ceremony at Lok Bhavan on Thursday morning as he was in New Delhi at the time.
“So after I arrived in Kolkata this morning, my first task was to meet the new Governor.
“I also assured the Governor of my full cooperation and coordination with him as the Leader of the Opposition for the overall development of the state, maintenance of law and order, and all public welfare initiatives. I also presented the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and wished him a successful and productive tenure,” Adhikari said.
Ravi succeeds C.V. Ananda Bose, who suddenly resigned from the post on the evening of March 5, following which Ravi’s name was announced as his successor the same evening. Ravi arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday, while Bose left the city for his hometown in Kerala.
Ravi is the second former Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer to be sworn in as the Governor of West Bengal in the last one-and-a-half decades.
Before the crucial West Bengal Assembly elections in 2011, which marked the end of the 34-year-long Left Front regime and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, former IB chief and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan was sworn in as the Governor of the state.