The NDA Government on Sunday shifted Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram for the remainder of her term. Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva has been given additional charge as Gujarat Governor until regular arrangement for the Gujarat Raj Bhavan is made, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan release on Sunday.
Mizoram Governor Vakkom Purushothaman was transferred to Nagaland for the remainder of his term. He will continue to hold additional charge as Tripura Governor. The appointments will take effect from the dates the incumbents assume charge of their respective offices, the release added. Transfers of Gujarat and Mizoram Governors came even as the Centre is likely to clear the names of senior BJP leaders for appointment as new Governors in about half a dozen States where vacancies in Raj Bhavans have arisen due to resignations of the incumbents recently.
Uttar Pradesh Governor Bl Joshi, Chhattisgarh Governor Shekhar Dutt, Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar, West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan and Goa Governor BV Wanchoo recently stepped down. Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj and Tripura Governor Devanand Konwar finished their term recently.
Beniwal hit the headline after she returned the Modi Government’s Gujarat lokayukta Commission Bill 2013 despite the State Assembly passing it with a clear majority. She objected to a clause that gives all powers to a committee headed by the Chief Minister to appoint the State lokayukta, virtually eliminating the Governor as well as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court from the process.
The controversy not ended with the rejection of the Bill. Her letter addressed to the Gujarat Assembly highlighting her objections to the said Bill leaked in the media through an unknown e-mail ID and had created controversy. The State Assembly had passed the Bill after the Modi Government lost a two-year long legal battle in the Supreme Court over the appointment of retired judge Justice RA Mehta as lokayukta by the Governor. She had made that appointment unilaterally without consulting the State Cabinet, much to the chagrin of then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Before becoming Prime Minister, Modi had repeatedly demanded the recall of Governor Beniwal.
Along with many other Congress Ministers and political leaders from Rajasthan, Beniwal was also an accused in the Rs 1,000-crore Jaipur Development Authority land scam. She was allocated expensive land at low prices on the basis of false affidavits and documents. She had claimed to be a farm labourer putting in 16 hours of work every day for the past 41,000 days according to the records of Kisan Samuhik Krishi Sahakari Samiti limited (KSKSSl), a cooperative body in Jaipur, based upon which land was allocated to her. The cooperatives registrar of Jaipur passed strong strictures against KSKSSl and in its enquiry concluded that the samiti’s claim that they were farm labourers was false, and that the samiti had deliberately and intentionally given false statements.