The Hindu : Dhumal dares Himachal CM to come clean

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003

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Dhumal dares Himachal CM to come clean

By Kanwar Yogendra

SHIMLA NOV. 25. The former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, strident in his reply to Congress charges, has now demanded that the cassette given by the previous chairman, S.M. Katwal of Subordinate Service Selection Board (SSSB) to the Chief Secretary, Arvind Kaul, be made public.

Challenging his successor, Virbhadra Singh, he said: "If the Chief Minister has the courage he should make the details public instead of levelling wild allegations of irregularities in appointments done during the earlier government."

He told reporters that only a nephew and a brother-in-law of his are in government jobs and not 58 others as mentioned in the list released by the Congress. The Congress Government, he alleged, had transferred the two relatives a number of times in the past eight months.

Mr. Dhumal said the person who had been indicted by the Harsh Gupta and Avay Shukla Committees for distributing jobs to his favourites on `chits' is now levelling charges of distributing jobs to the relatives.

Meanwhile, the suspended chairman of SSSB, S.M. Katwal, has reportedly said that if the contents of the tape furnished to the then Home Secretary by him are revealed, a number of senior Congress Ministers, including the Chief Minister's fate could be sealed. He has demanded that the Chief Minister be interrogated by the Vigilance and the Enforcement departments.

Mr.Katwal has also questioned why the challan is not being filed against him in the court and wondered if the inordinate delay by the investigative agencies is at the behest of the government. He has also alleged that he was pressurised during investigations to implicate the former Chief Minister.

The former Chairman has charged that the government was trying its best to shield the Congressmen whom he had named during the investigation as they had openly recommended their favourites for jobs when he was at the helm. Statements against Congress leaders have not been recorded, he alleged. Mr. Katwal, briefing the reporters at his residence in Una on Saturday, had said that over 800 employees have been working overtime for eight months to finding clues or any misappropriations in the records of SSSB, but in vain. There are a couple of instances of overwriting over which a hue and cry is being made.

The state BJP is answering the Congress charges with a new vigour and is feeling relieved after nothing substantial was found in the alleged recruitment scam.

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Dhumal dares Himachal CM to come clean