Chandigarh, August 23
The Haryana Assembly today resolved to set up a House committee to go into the CBI recommendations that the government should take appropriate action against the Ch Devi Lal Memorial Trust, Ch. Devi Lal Memorial Society and the Jan Sewa Trust run by the family of INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala for violating norms.

The house also authorised Speaker Kuldeep Sharma to constitute the committee.

The decision came after the reply of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala to a call attention motion moved by former Speaker Raghuvir Singh Kadian.

In his motion, Kadian had said that in view of the framing of charges against Chautala and his sons, Ajay Singh and Abhay Singh, they should resign as MLAs. He also said that Chautala had no moral right to continue as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. In view of it being a “matter of great public importance”, Kadian sought a statement from the government.

The Speaker, after taking the consensus of the House, converted the motion into a “structured debate” on corruption.

Replying on behalf of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Surjewala informed the House that the government had received a CBI report through the Speaker, in which the investigating agency had categorically recommended that in view of the conditions of the allotment of land by various trusts and societies under the control of the Chautala family, the state government may take appropriate action.

Earlier, Surjewala said the CBI had registered a case on the orders of the Supreme Court on May 24, 2005 against 60 persons, including Chautala and Ajay Singh in what is known as the JBT teachers’ recruitment case. The allegation was that 3026 JBT teachers were selected through fraud on the basis of false lists. The CBI court of Delhi framed charges against Chautala and Ajay Singh on July 23, 2011.

He also said that a chargesheet was submitted to the Haryana Governor by senior Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala and others containing allegations about the assets collected by the Chautala family disproportionate to its known sources of income.

The government referred the chargesheet against the Chautalas to the CBI for investigation. In this case also charges had been framed against Chautala and Abhay Singh, while the issue of framing charges against Ajay Singh was under consideration.

It was on the suggestion of Kadian that the government agreed to the formation of a House committee.

BJP MLA Krishan Pal Gurjar demanded that the committee should go into the cases of all trusts and societies allotted public land since formation of Haryana to find out if the state objectives and purposes were being met or not.

Congress MLA Sampat Singh regretted that the INLD Government had not only diluted the Haryana Lokayukta Act but also it did not appoint anyone as Lokpal in the state during its regime.

BJP leader Anil Vij said it would have been proper to discuss the issues related to the Chautalas in their presence. The INLD members were earlier suspended from the House for creating a ruckus in the Assembly.