Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday edited the policy address delivered by Governor Rajendra Arlekar to the Assembly, The Hindu reported.
After Arlekar left the Assembly, Vijayan returned to the House and said that the governor had changed three paragraphs in the policy speech.
A governor is required to address the first session of the Assembly held in a year. As per convention, the governor reads a speech written by the state government.
Vijayan said on Tuesday that while Arlekar omitted some portions of the text, he had made certain additions elsewhere in the speech.
Paragraphs 12, 15 and 16 “as approved by the Cabinet will prevail”, Vijayan said. The English and Malayalam copies of the speech distributed to the MLAs retained the versions approved by the government, The Hindu reported.
Speaker AN Shamseer also said that the deletions and additions made by the governor will not be recognised, Onmanorama reported.
In the speech approved by the Cabinet, paragraph 12 said that despite social and institutional achievements, Kerala continues to face severe fiscal stress “arising from a series of adverse Union government actions that undermine the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism”.
The speech read by Arlekar said that the state was facing the fiscal stress “arising from curtailment of advances”, Vijayan was quoted as saying.
The governor omitted a portion of paragraph 15 that...
