According to the Constitution all orders of the state government are issued in the name of governor. So the question arises whether a sick governor who is in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital is in a position to dispose files containing such orders. Can he give assent to a pending bill passed by the legislature.

Is he physically and mentally fit to give such assent? Suppose a contingency arises in which a new Chief Minister has to assume the power, who will administer oath of office and secrecy to him. These questions are being asked in the political and administrative circles of the state. But there is no authority to answer them. It appears that either the central government is not aware about this state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh or they are indifferent and are not keen to solve the problem.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is very prompt in dismissing governors seems to be ignoring this complicated matter.

Not only in regard to the governor, there are many institutions which are topless in the state. Some of these institutions have been created by the law passed by parliament or state Vidhan Sabha. There are also some such organisations which have quasi-judicial power. They also are topless. The most important among such organisations is the State Human Rights Commission. This commission is functioning without chairman for last five years. After the retirement of Mr. Dharmadhikari in 2010 as Chairman of the Commission the post is lying vacant. For some time the commission functioned under an officiating chairman, who was a retired High Court Judge but he too retired leaving the commission without a judicial member.

According to the constitution of the Commission a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of High Court can be appointed as the chairman of the commission. But despite a gap of five years no fulltime chairman has been appointed. At present the commission has only one member, who happens to be a retired police officer. He is functioning both as officiating chairman and also a sole member of the commission. Thousands of petitions and representations are piling up in the offices of the commission.

In all there are 19 commissions in the state. Among them there are such commissions which have been constituted to take care of the problems and grievances of the vulnerable sections of the society. They include women, children, members of scheduled castes scheduled tribes, minorities. Almost all the above listed commissions are not having chairman or in some cases even members.

Madhya Pradesh has a substantial number of tribal population. The commission which is expected to take care of their problems has neither chairman nor members. Similar is the case of Madhya Pradesh commission for the protection of children's rights which has also neither chairman nor members. The most sensitive commission for minorities is functioning without chairman. Madhya Pradesh tops the list of the states as for atrocities on women is concerned. This commission should have five members besides the chairperson, who should be invariably being a woman. But all the posts of this commission are also vacant. The commission for scheduled castes consists of chairman and two members. At present affairs of this commission are being looked after by its fulltime secretary.

Besides these commissions, problems of these vulnerable sections would be taken care of by various committees of Vidhan Sabha. These committees hardly meet. In case some committees meet and submit their report to the speaker they are not placed on the table of the House and never discussed. In fact the number of sittings of Vidhan Sabha are becoming rare. This year even the annual budget of the state government was passed without discussion.

There are complaints that Ministers do not visit secretarial and discharges their responsibility from their residence. Only the Chief Minister and one or two minister attend their office in the secretariats. Thus the state of affairs is beyond satisfaction and the provision of the constitution and administrative traditions are not been observed in this BJP ruled state of Madhya Pradesh. (IPA Service)