The Raj Bhavan Secretariat should have made sure that Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was allowed to use the Maharashtra government aircraft before his visit to Dehradun in Uttarakhand on Thursday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's Secretariat said in the statement. As the Raj Bhavan Secretariat failed to do so, it led to a delay in the travel of an 'eminent' person like the Governor, the statement added.
The government noted that the Raj Bhavan had requested to allow the Governor to travel by aircraft. "As per the rules, permission is sought before boarding a government aircraft and the aircraft is made available only after approval," the statement said. "According to this, the Chief Minister's Secretariat had on Wednesday, February 10, sent a message that the use of aircraft has not been approved yet," it added.
After receiving the approval, the Raj Bhavan Secretariat was expected to plan the flight of the Governor and bring him to the airport. However, even as the concerned officials of Raj Bhavan did not get the approval, they took the Governor to board the flight, and this was the reason why he could not go to the desired place by the state government plane, read the statement.
Earlier in the day, Koshyari was denied permission to use the state plane even as he had boarded the aircraft, PTI reported. The Governor later took a commercial flight to travel to Dehradun, a statement from the Raj Bhavan said.
This comes amid uneasy ties between the state's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and Koshyari, with both sides have being critical of each other in the past.
In October last year, during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Koshyari wrote a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, asking if the latter had turned "secular" since he denied permission at that time to reopen temples in the state.
The CM later said he does need a "Hindutva certificate" from anyone.
During the pandemic last year, Koshyari also insisted on holding the final year exams of degree students in the state, but Thackeray at that time rejected the demand.
