CM Stalin accuses Governor Ravi of acting against TN govt

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday accused Governor RN Ravi of acting against the state government in all the issues.

Ravi has been levelling allegations against the state government in all matters and it was not just in one or two issues, the Chief Minister told reporters here when asked on the Governor’s recent allegations.

Ravi hitting out at CM Stalin for holding Gandhi memorial events at the museum complex here, his demand to include UGC chairman’s nominee in search committees to identify candidates for appointment as vice-chancellors in state-run varsities were among the recent issues of disagreement between the Raj Bhavan and the government, that led to a war of words.

After inspecting works related to the North Chennai Development Plan here, the CM said the Governor taking a stand against the government has worked well for the state and Ravi should continue doing it.

On the issue related to appointment of vice-chancellors, the CM said his government has already taken the matter to the Supreme Court and it is set to come up for hearing on February 4.

On January 30, Governor Ravi urged the state government to recall its notification constituting a search committee for identifying a candidate for appointment as Madurai Kamaraj University vice-chancellor as the UGC chairman’s nominee had been “purposefully” excluded in that panel.

The government must instead notify the search committee constituted by him in which the UGC chairman’s nominee is a member, Ravi had urged.

To a question related to criticism of rationalist leader ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy (by Tamil nationalist party, Naam Tamizhar Katchi’s top leader Seeman), Stalin said “Periyar is our leader and he is the leader of all our leaders”.

Further, the CM said he was not inclined to show respect to those who spoke ill of Periyar.

Asked on opposition’s criticism related to law and order, he said some isolated incidents were blown out of proportion. Law and order continued to be maintained pretty well and flow of investments into the state demonstrated it, he added.