Maharashtra Governor Denied Use Of VVIP Plane
On 11th February Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was denied the use of the VVIP aircraft for his travel to Dehradun from Mumbai by the Maharashtra government stating that it was a personal visit.
The relations between Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is not too good and often there is a tussle between them. On 10th February Deputy CM Ajit Pawar had said that they may take a legal route as Governor has not accepted nor sent the list of 12 names submitted by the government to include in Maharashtra’s Legislative Council.
Then on 11th February Governor Koshyari was denied the use of the VVIP aircraft for his travel to Dehradun from Mumbai by the Maharashtra government. He had to wait for over two hours at the Mumbai airport to take a commercial flight to Uttarakhand. Mr. Koshyari was scheduled to attend a programme at Mussoorie on Friday 12th February and was scheduled to depart from Mumbai for Dehradun, Uttarakhand, his home state. , at 10.00 a.m. on 11th February.
A source said, "A state government plane was booked earlier. But, the permission did not come till the last moment. Normally, governors do not wait for the permission to come. He sat in the aircraft. The pilot then said the permission was not given yet.” The Governor's office later booked a seat in a private aircraft and he left for Dehradun at around 12.15 pm.
Maharashtra's opposition BJP accused the Shiv Sena-led government and demanded an apology from Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for the insult to the Governor. Sena leader, Priyanka Chaturvedi, said that no one is allowed to take special government planes if not for official purposes and said that Mr Koshyari's visit was a personal one.
