Hours after the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution against the Governor for a second time on April 10, Governor R.N. Ravi assented to a Bill banning online gambling in the State.
In over three years, more than 40 people died by suicide, reportedly having suffered huge losses after playing online gambling, as per government and police data.
TN Governor R.N. Ravi also sparked controversy as per media reports after he told a group of civil service aspirants that withholding bills was a decent way of rejecting the bills. He had called them "dead bills". At present, there are 21 other Bills pending with the Governor, including a few that seek to remove him as Chancellor of state universities.
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Ravi had earlier sent back the online gambling ban bill in early March this year after withholding it for over four months, and had also said that the dismissed the Assembly’s legislative competence to draw up a Bill of this nature.
Today's development was seen as a morale booster for the ruling DMK and Chief Minister MK Stalin. "The Governor indefinitely withholding bills is against the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu. His controversial comments belittle the dignity of the house and undermine the legislature's supremacy in parliamentary democracy," Stalin said.
Twenty other bills are still pending with the Governor, including a few that seek to remove him as Chancellor of state universities. A few months ago when NDTV asked the Governor if it's proper for him to sit on judgment on bills that aim to clip his powers than leaving for courts to decide, he had said the Constitution allows him.
