Khattar orders 97 vigilance probes during 9-month tenure

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh August 4

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is set to score a century  of ordering  vigilance inquiries during his nine-month rule bringing   the role of over 60 officers, including IAS and HCS officers, under the scanner.

From October 26, 2014, till July 31, 2015, the Chief Minister, who also holds charge of the vigilance department, ordered inquiries into 97 cases, including some high-profile cases, of  alleged irregularities during former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s tenure.

While official sources claimed that the vigilance probes were in line with the BJP’s pre-poll promise of probing cases where large-scale irregularities had been alleged, the opposition Congress had termed these probes as part of “vendetta politics”.

The most  high-profile case where a vigilance probe had been ordered is the alleged irregular allotment of industrial plots to close associates of Hooda in the Panchkula Industrial Estate in  2012. Similarly, the alleged irregularities in the construction of  Kaushalya Dam in Panchkula have also come under the vigilance scanner during the Khattar regime.

The alleged favours  shown  in giving permission for the approach road of a five-star hotel in Sector 26 of Gurgaon by demolishing certain BPL houses was also marked for a vigilance probe by Khattar. The alleged payment of land  compensation amounting to crores of rupees to ineligible  beneficiaries  in Panchkula district during 1998-2014 also came  to the vigilance.

It is learnt that  two IAS officers, one HCS officer, two chief engineers, two SEs, 35 XENs, three tehsildars, two naib tehsildars,  and 14 SDOs are in the dock due to their alleged involvement in the cases where vigilance inquiries are under way.

Besides, the Khattar Government also constituted a Commission of Inquiry  under retired Delhi High Court Judge SN Dhingra to probe the land deals in Sector 83 of Gurgaon, including that of Robert Vadra.