Telangana Governor’s meet’n’greet on Diwali turns a praja durbar

Hyderabad: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan held a praja darbar at Raj Bhavan on occasion of Diwali and met several people including political leaders on Sunday. Some of them presented her a memorandum on the ongoing strike by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation employees. On this, the Governor said the state government will take care of the issue.

Dr Soundararajan has previously held review meetings with officials on education and tribal welfare issues. She has announced that she will visit some tribal areas soon and also make a night halt there.The Governor has been gradually becoming active in government-related issues. It is significant that she held a praja darbar and met people and political leaders when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been facing criticism that he does not allow his own party MLAs to meet him.

Raj Bhavan sources disclosed that Dr Soundararajan has decided to meet people on special occasions like festivals, a practice her predecessor E.S.L. Narasimhan followed.

Sources said the Governor met people to exchange greetings on the occasion of Diwali but some people ended up giving her representations on their problems. Sources said Dr Soundararajan would not be holding praja darbars on a regular basis.

Dr Soundararajan is accessible and mingles freely with people and others. Recently, RTC union leaders met her twice. State BJP leaders met her a couple of times to brief her about RTC strike and other issues. Post this, the Governor called transport minister P. Ajay Kumar over phone and sought to know the alternative arrangements being made by the government in view of the strike. Later, transport principal secretary Sunil Sharma met Dr Soundararajan and briefed her on the issue.

Telangana TD president L. Ramana and former MP Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy were among the politicians who met the Governor during the praja darbar.