May add or omit portions from my address at the budget session

A day after the show of bonhomie between the state government and Raj Bhawan, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar Wednesday said he might add or omit portions from the speech which he is scheduled to read out at the begining of Budget session on February 7, signaling opening of a new front with the TMC government.

The comment by Dhankhar, who has had several run-ins with the Mamata Banerjee government, drew sharp reactions from state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee who said the governor's address should be delivered as per norms.

"A draft of the address that the governor is required to deliver in the state assembly on Februrary 7, 2020 has been made available to me after approval of the state cabinet. That is under my consideration. If I have an issue and I want to make an addition or omission I will do it in a formal manner," Dhankhar told reporters here.

Declining to disclose the deliberations between him, Chatterjee, the state Finance Minister Amit Mitra and Chief secretary Rajiva Sinha earlier this week, Dhankhar said it was marked with a "positive approach".

"In togetherness we all will work for the welfare of West Bengal. And even if there are different points of view, that cannot take us to a level of conforntation. We have to be accomodative of each other's points of view," he said.

Reacting to Dhankhar's statement, Chatterjee said the governor should not turn into a "comentator" while delivering his address to the House.

"Whatever he has to do he can do, whatever we have to do, we will do it. The governor should not start behaving like a commentator," he said.

According to norms, the governor reads out the speech prepared by the state government during the budget session and contains the government's policy decisions.

"We are hopeful that he (Dhankhar) will follow the norms. If he does not, then we will have to find some other way," a senior TMC leader said.

The development came a day after Mamata Banerjee government in a sign of reconciliation between the state administration and the Raj Bhavan decided to provide Dhankhar with a helicopter for his travel to Santiniketan on Thursday.

On several occasions last year, the state government had rejected Dhankhar's request for a chopper to travel to Santiniketan, Domkal and Farakka.