Despite opposition by the DMK, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Friday held a meeting with officials of Cuddalore district, around 190 km from Chennai.
Apart from holding discussions with district officials of different departments in the meeting, he also visited different places in Cuddalore and interacted with people amid waving of black flags by DMK protesters.
On December 7, DMK leader MK Stalin had said party supporters will hold peaceful protests against Purohit during his visits to various districts to review developmental works.
Stalin said the Governor should stop indulging in "political" work to review projects and instead order Chief Minister K Palaniswami to prove his government's majority in the assembly.
Purohit had earlier met officials of cyclone-hit Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts as well as district officials of Coimbatore and Tirupur.
To make matters worse, three persons, including an elderly woman and a boy, were killed on Friday when they were hit by an "advance pilot" vehicle of the Governor's entourage in New Kalpakkam in the district, police said.
A Raj Bhavan release in Chennai denied as "factually incorrect" reports that the vehicle was part of the Governor's convoy when he visited Cuddalore for a review meeting with district officials.
The release said the Kanchipuram Superintendent of Police had reported that a Bolero (TN-21G-2839), used as an advance pilot vehicle by Kanchipuram district police, had met with an accident on way back to Kanchipuram after leaving the Governor's convoy on the district borders during his journey from Cuddalore to Chennai.
"It is clear that the vehicle that met with the accident was entirely on its own and not a part of the Governor's convoy. There was no mishap/accident during the convoy's movement from Cuddalore to Chennai," the Raj Bhavan said.
Earlier, on November 14, the Governor had visited the state and held review meetings with top district officials in Coimbatore. He had arrived in Coimbatore to attend the convocation ceremony of Bharathiar University.
This had sparked a debate on whether the Governor was overstepping his constitutional remit and unnecessarily interfering in the affairs of the district administration.
On November 20, the Governor's office quoted Purohit as saying that his review meeting with officials in Coimbatore was within the constitutional framework and that he would continue to hold such meetings.
(With IANS inputs)