Chandigarh, February 14
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, today implemented his threat of taking action against those IAS officers who, he said, “are not obeying the government’s orders under the garb of the model code of conduct”, delivered at a Cabinet meeting held here on February 11 immediately after his return from Pakistan.
The government today placed under suspension the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Finance, Town and Country Planning and Tourism, Mr Bhaskar Chatterjee, with immediate effect.
An official spokesman said here today that Mr Chatterjee had “wilfully not implemented” the orders passed by the competent authority and had also violated the Rules of Business of Haryana-1977, especially Rule 19 contained in part (3).
He, however, did not specify which orders Mr Chatterjee had not implemented.
According to sources in the Haryana bureaucracy, the Department of Town and Country Planning had sent a file relating to certain cases of colonisation licences and change of land use, which have been described as among major sources of corruption by the Opposition, to Mr Chatterjee “for information” after approving them. According to the sources, the “competent authority” for approving such cases is the Director, Town and Country Planning Department.
As a matter of caution, Mr Chatterjee is believed to have sought the opinion of the Legal Remembrancer, Mr R.S. Madan, who reportedly wrote back that ipso facto the code of conduct did not prohibit the grant of colonisation licences or approval of change of land use applications.
Mr Chatterjee is believed to have sought the advice of the Chief Secretary, Mr Sunil Ahuja, who said though the code did not prohibit the grant of licences, it would be in public probity if the licences or permission to change of land use was granted after the completion of the election process.
The sources say Mr Ahuja was made to issue the suspension orders of Mr Chatterjee after he received a note from the Chief Minister’s office.
The working president of the Haryana Congress, Mr Randeep
Surjewala, and the MLA from Palwal, Mr Karan Singh Dalal, had alleged in a memorandum submitted to the Governor here yesterday that the Chautala Government was “pressurising” officers to grant colonisation licences and approve change of land use applications. They had even alleged that threats of physical harm were being issued to the officers.
Mr Dalal today alleged that the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr B.D. Dhalia, was behind intimidation of the officers. He said when the Congress would come to power, it would immediately order an inquiry to find out the details of the property owned by the officer and his family so that if the assets were found to be disproportionate to his known sources of income, action could be taken against him.
Interestingly, along with the suspension orders of Mr Chatterjee, the government also issued a statement on behalf of the Town and Country Planning Minister, Mr Dhir Pal, clarifying that the government had decided not to issue any license to any coloniser till the elections were over.
In an obvious reference to the allegations levelled by Mr Surjewala and Mr Dalal, he said that although the code of conduct did not prohibit the state government from issuing any such license, yet the government had taken this decision as a measure of extreme self restraint.
However, he did not clarify whether the government would implement the orders “which were passed by the competent authority” and on which Mr Chatterjee had allegedly sat.
Meanwhile, the government has ordered that the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies, Mr H.C. Disodia, would hold the charge of Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, in addition to his present duties. The Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Excise and Taxation and Forests, Mr L.S.M. Salins, would hold the additional charge of Town and Country Planning Department.
