Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday said that he hasn't signed the bill separating Bally from Howrah Municipal Corporation.

Dismissing reports in a section of media claiming that the Governor on Friday had signed the bill separating Bally from Howrah, Dhankhar on Saturday claimed that the bill is under his consideration as inputs from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are awaited.

Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar said, “Reports in the media that West Bengal Governor Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar has put his seal of approval on the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 are not correct. It is under consideration under Article 200 of Constitution as inputs @MamataOfficial are awaited.”

Slamming the Governor, TMC spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said that the Governor instead of respecting his post acts as a ‘BJP cadre’.

“Just to offer better facilities to the people of the state separating the two municipalities is needed. The Governor should cooperate with the state government but instead, as always he is behaving like a BJP cadre and is creating unnecessary hindrance in the path of development,” said Ghosh.

It is pertinent to mention that Article 200 of the Constitution gives the Governor the power to either pass a bill or reserve it for the consideration of the President.

BJP spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said that the ruling Trinamool Congress government breaks and joins things as per their own will.

“Howrah and Bally were once separated and the TMC government had combined the two municipalities. Now just for their own gain they are trying to separate the two municipalities again,” said Majumdar.

It can be recalled that on Friday the Governor had met State Election Commissioner Saurav Das to take stock of the remaining civic polls. The first phase of the poll including Howrah, Asansol, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Siliguri is scheduled on January 22 and the rest of the civic polls will be held on February 27.