Speaker Khanduri orders probe in controversial appointments in Vidhan Sabha

Sunday, 04 September 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN

 Three-member expert committee of former top bureaucrats constituted; VS secretary sent on a long leave

In a major decision the Uttarakhand Assembly speaker Ritu Khanduri has constituted a three-member expert committee to investigate the allegations of illegal appointments and promotions of employees in the State Assembly. The committee headed by former principal secretary Dilip Kumar Kotia has been asked to submit its report in a period of one month. The other two members of the committee are Surendra Singh Rawat and AS Nayal. All the three experts of the committee are retired officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and had held the position of secretary, Personnel in the past. In another decision, the speaker has sent the Vidhan Sabha Secretary Mukesh Kumar Singhal on a long leave. He will have to remain present before the expert committee whenever required and help in the investigation proceedings.

Interacting with the media persons about her decisions at her office in Vidhan Sabha on Saturday, Khanduri categorically stated that strict action would be taken on the basis of the report of the expert committee. She said that any type of indiscipline and irregularity is not acceptable to her as speaker and that she is ready to take strict measures for reforms in Vidhan Sabha in the greater interests of the people of the State. Khanduri accepted that recent disclosures and media reports have tarnished the image of the Vidhan Sabha and she would adopt every possible measure to restore it. She said that the expert committee would investigate the appointments made in the Vidhan Sabha in two phases, in the first phase the appointments done from the year 2012 till date would be investigated and in the second the appointments from the year 2000 to 2011 would be scanned. The regulations of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha were formulated in the year 2011, prior it the provisions of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha regulations were applicable.

In a clear message that she means business, the speaker said that impressed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she decided to come to public life and has made his quote ‘ Na Khaunga Na Khane Dunga’ her guiding principle.