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Punjab Speaker faces CBI
chargesheet for earlier corruption
WSN Network
Chandigarh: He
is the man supposed to uphold the dignity and propriety of the
members of the elected House, a House that is called the temple of
democracy. Now, the Supreme Court has asked the CBI to file a
chargesheet against Punjab Assembly speaker Nirmal Singh Kalhon for
his involvement in illegal appointments of panchayat secretaries
when he was a minister in the earlier Akali Dal-led regime.
Many had
objected to Kahlon's choice as speaker as they had feared that such
a day will come when Akali Dal will court embarrassment, but then
perhaps the SAD leaderhsip is easily embarrassed.
The court has
also ordered the filing of a chargesheet against three former deputy
directors of rural development and panchayat department of
Punjab for their
alleged involvement in the scam.
A bench
comprising justices S B Sinha and Aftab Alam dismissed the petitions
of Kahlon and other accused challenging the
Punjab and
Haryana high court order, which had directed a CBI inquiry in the
case. “The offence is not ordinary in nature. It had a wide
ramification as a former minister of state is said to be involved,”
the bench observed.
The case has a
long history. An advertisement for 190 posts was first made in 1992
and a written examination conducted in 1994. The matter had reached
the court after the government made 545 ad hoc appointments after
ignoring the selected candidates. In September 1996, it advertised
700 posts and issued another 800-post advertisement a month later.
Out of the 1.5 lakh candidates who responded, 3,286 candidates
cleared the written test and 908 were selected after an interview.
In 2002, when the Congress government tried reinstating panchayat
patwaris whose services had been terminated by the previous regime,
it led to a fresh round of litigation regarding the appointment of
1,908 candidates as panchayat secretaries. While the high court had
recorded “systematic fraud in the recruitment”, the VB had
registered an FIR.
3
December 2008
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