M A I N   N E W S

Hooda orders inquiries into Chautala ‘irregularities’
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 6
Contrary to his public posture of being soft on the INLD chief, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has quietly ordered inquiries into a number of cases in which, prima facie, several irregularities were committed by the previous regime. Mr Hooda gave an indication to this effect at a press conference he held in Amritsar today.

The most glaring case is of the loan of Rs 7 crore to the Naraingarh Sugar Mill by the Haryana State Industries Development Corporation (HSIDC) after the state Cabinet stood guarantee for the private mill, which has not returned even a single paisa.

The mill had already been a defaulter of the HSIDC on two loans. It was also a defaulter of other financial institutions when the powers that be pressurised the HSIDC to extend a fresh loan of Rs 7 crore to it. When the HSIDC resisted, the issue was taken to the Cabinet, which, against all norms, stood guarantee for the loan. The government stands guarantee only for loans to its own corporations and boards and not to a private mill. The loan was disbursed about two years ago. No collateral security was taken from the mill.

Interestingly, a few months after the Haryana Cabinet stood guarantee for the Naraingarh mill, Mr Chautala rejected a financial package announced by the Centre for sugarcane growers. Under the package the farmers would have got the state advised price (SAP) from the private mills against the minimum support price they were willing to pay. Mr Chautala had rejected the package on the plea that the state should not be asked to return the loan received for private mills. When newsmen pointed out to him the contrary stand taken by his government in the case of the Naraingarh mill, he lost his temper.

The Hooda government is inquiring what irregularities were committed at which level while extending the loan to the mill. If the case goes to a court of law, it can become a test case for defining the powers of the Cabinet. So far it has been a tendency with ruling politicians to get any issue approved by the Cabinet, under the impression that the Cabinet has absolute powers and it can take a decision which may not be in the public interest.

The Hooda government feels that after a preliminary inquiry, the case should be given to an independent investigating agency like the CBI so that the credibility of the investigation could not be questioned.

According to informed sources, the government has also asked the Vigilance Bureau to inquire into the appointments of certain college lecturers who did not fulfil even the minimum qualifications laid down by the University Grants Commission and were still selected by the Haryana Public Service Commission headed by Dr K.C. Bangar. When the then Director, Higher Education, Mrs Anuradha Gupta, had opposed their appointment, she was transferred.

The sources say Mrs Gupta’s successor, Mr Dhanpat Singh, and the then Education Secretary, Mr P.K. Chaudhery, had also opposed the appointments, but they were overruled by the then Chief Minister, who ordered that they should be appointed. It is learnt that Kurukshetra University had too refused to approve the appointment of certain such lecturers. A similar case happened in the Technical Education Department also. The Vigilance Bureau is inquiring into this case also.

An exercise is on in the Town and Country Planning Department to make a list of all those cases in which the existing policy was relaxed as a one-time exception, to give favours to particular individuals after getting the approval of the Cabinet. The department has been asked to review all such cases so that penal action can be initiated wherever legally possible.