CM Khattar protecting accused, says Surjewala

CHANDIGARH: Senior Congress leader and media in-charge of the Indian National Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala on Wednesday alleged that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was protecting the accused in ‘cash-for-job scam’ even as the Haryana Government retaliated by fielding Minister of State for Labour and Employment Nayab Singh Saini who accused the former of playing “cheap politics”.

Randeep Singh Surjewala addresses party workers in Sector 5, Panchkula, on Wednesday. Tribune Photo: Ravi Kumar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 18

Senior Congress leader and media in-charge of the Indian National Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala on Wednesday alleged that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was protecting the accused in ‘cash-for-job scam’ even as the Haryana Government retaliated by fielding Minister of State for Labour and Employment Nayab Singh Saini who accused the former of playing “cheap politics”.

Addressing a gathering of youth who had assembled at the office of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission in Panchkula near here on Wednesday to participate in ‘Save Jobs – Save Haryana’ dharna, Surjewala said if the Chief Minister does not sack the commission and order an inquiry by two sitting High Court Judges within 24 hours, it will only mean that the accused were being allegedly “shielded” by the present regime.

The youth sitting on the dharna expressed their deep anguish and resentment against the BJP Government. Surjewala said on the formation of the Congress Government, an FIR will be lodged within one week against the chairman/members and others in addition to holding a judicial enquiry.

He demanded the government, if it believed in so much transparency, should order a CAG audit of close to Rs 2,000 crore spent on ‘Swaran Jayanti’ and ‘Geeta Jayanti’ while adding that the file for the same had been put up to the Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, Minister of State Nayab Singh Saini termed the protest by Surjewala in Panchkula as a “nautanki” and said it was ridiculous that people who “played part-time politics in the state, and never performed, were speaking about the interests of Haryana”.

In the Vidhan Sabha, public representatives normally raise issues concerning the people of their respective areas but Surjewala does not bother to attend the House, he stated.

On getting complaints of the HSSC, Saini said the Chief Minister showed the courage to nab corrupt officials who were playing with the future of the youth. “Had there been the Congress or the INLD Government, cases of corruption in recruitment would have been buried,” he said.