Agartala, March 20: Tripura governor D.Y. Patil was given a ceremonial farewell at Raj Bhavan here today by cabinet ministers, senior officials of the state government and a group of Opposition legislators.
Chief minister Manik Sarkar who had gone to Delhi on Monday for a party programme could not make it to the farewell.
The ceremony, which began at noon, was attended by all the 11 cabinet ministers of the Left Front, senior government officials, including chief secretary S.K. Panda, director-general of police S.K. Sinha, chiefs of paramilitary forces and three Congress MLAs — PCC president Sudip Roy Barman, Asish Saha and former MLA Surajit Dutta.
As soon as the governor arrived, he was escorted by DGP Sinha to a nearby spot where police and TSR jawans gave him the ceremonial guard of honour.
The governor greeted the ministers and officials and then got into the waiting vehicle with his wife Pushpalata and headed for Agartala airport en route to Patna.
Official sources here said Patil would continue to remain in charge of Tripura till the swearing-in of his successor, Debananda Konwar of Assam, who is scheduled to be sworn in on March 25.
Konwar’s appointment has spared adverse reaction from the ruling Left Front here. However, soon after being informed of the appointment by the Union home ministry over phone, chief minister Manik Sarkar had lashed out at the Centre’s “unilateral decision” in making the appointment. He pointed out that on earlier occasions the opinions of the state governments had been sought. He had deplored the “policy of arbitrariness and unilateralism” followed by Union home ministry in appointing governors. The CPM party and its politburo had also protested the unilateral appointment on grounds of principle.
“We do not have any objection to the new governor’s political background. He was a Congressman but he had a right to be in whatever party he liked. Our stand is against the unilateral appointment made by the Union home ministry without seeking the opinion of the state government,” said Haripada Das, office secretary of CPM in Tripura, while explaining the reason for their protest.
Das said in 1993, the CPM had protested the appointment of Ramesh Bhandari as the governor and continued a movement all over the state. “What will be done this time is not yet decided but we will continue our protest against the arbitrary and unilateral appointment,” he added.
