Chief secretary Ashok Kumar Singh (right) welcomes Governor MOH Farook on his maiden visit to the secretariat in Ranchi on Wednesday after imposition of President’s rule. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, June 2: On his maiden visit to the main secretariat at Project Building today, Governor M..H. Farook constituted the Tribal Advisory Council (TAC), which will be headed by eminent academic and Rajya Sabha member Ram Dayal Munda, as long as the state remains under central rule.

Once President’s rule is revoked, Munda would cease to function as the executive president as according to rules, TAC has to be headed by the chief minister. Munda, will, however, continue to be a member of the council.

Champai Soren, Simon Marandi, Deepak Birua, Guru Charan Nayak, Bimla Pradhan, Lobin Hembrom, Hemant Soren, Sita Soren, Bandhu Tirkey, Chamra Linda, Geetashree Oraon, Laxman Gilua, Kamal Kishore Bhagat, Mistri Soren, Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter — all members of the suspended Assembly — former Union minister Rameshwar Oraon and Kolhan University vice-chancellor Beni Ekka have been named members of the council. The state’s welfare secretary will double as secretary of TAC.

Yesterday, Munda had met the governor and urged him to constitute the TAC at the earliest and initiate steps to hold panchayat elections as soon as possible. He had argued that the absence such bodies was the root cause of a majority of problems in the villages. He also demanded a look at the MoUs signed so far and the alleged misuse of central aid.

The governor is learnt to have already directed officials to begin preparations for panchayat elections. Sources in the personnel department added that the governor also intended to examine the controversial mass transfer of officials after the Shibu Soren government was reduced to a minority, following withdrawal of support by the BJP.

While presiding over a meeting with senior officials at the Raj Bhavan last evening, the governor had spelt out his priorities. He had stressed on improving law and order, speedy disposal of forest act cases, effective utilisation of funds, disposal of pending vigilance cases, improving public distribution system and punctuality of officials.

Today, Farook also held one-to-one meetings with the chief secretary and secretaries of different departments. He inquired about the current status of different welfare and development schemes, especially those sponsored by the Centre. He advised them to speed up work and achieve the set targets on time. He also stressed that lapses on anyone’s part would not be tolerated and that there was no place for lax and corrupt officials in his scheme of things.

“It was basically an interactive session. He comes across as soft-spoken, but he can be a hard taskmaster. He is more interested in strictly executing what Delhi wants him to do. Let us hope that things work out well,” said a senior official.

The governor reached Project Building at 10.20am today and stayed for two hours. Thereafter he left for Delhi in the afternoon. He is likely to return on Friday.

Farook’s Delhi visit is aimed at selecting his advisers and seeking necessary guidelines from the Centre in the changed scenario.

Former chief secretary P.P. Sharma, former development commissioner T. Nandkumar, former DGP R.R. Prasad are reportedly contenders for the advisers’ posts.