CM okays NRI Sabha bylaws, but govt dept in denial mode

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 30

A controversy has erupted over the Punjab NRI Sabha’s bylaws, framed 19 years after its inception. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, also the chief patron of the Sabha, recently approved the bylaws, but the state NRI Affairs Department is in the denial mode.

Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary of the department, said they had prepared a draft of the bylaws, which would be placed before the Sabha’s central executive, to be constituted soon. “Once the draft is okayed by the central executive, it will be sent to the chief patron (CM) for the final consent,” said Kumar.

The Sabha has been functioning without an elected president since March last year, even as the state government is yet to issue a notification to constitute a central executive.

The bylaws were framed by a 16-member committee, including government officials and five ‘handpicked’ NRIs. The Sabha’s constitution states that the chairman will frame the bylaws in consultation with the central executive headed by the president. The Sabha was set up in 1997 as an autonomous society that receives no financial aid from the state government or any agency.

The bylaws have fixed the sanctioned expenditure up to Rs 1 lakh for the president, but granted more financial powers (limit of up to Rs 5 lakh) to the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner, the ex officio chairman of the Sabha. While the constitution states that the executive director will assist the president and the executive in discharging the duties of the Sabha, the bylaws have made the former a joint signatory along with the president to carry out the bank operations within the financial limit.

Though the initial draft had vested the powers to recruit and terminate the services of the Sabha staff with the chairman, opposition by former Sabha presidents made the department notify that the recruitments would be done by the president in consultation with the chairman.

Former Sabha president Jasvir Singh Gill said, “How can the NRI department frame the bylaws when there is no elected president and the central executive has not been constituted? Why has the department not conducted the elections? This shows their mala fide intentions to end the Sabha’s autonomy.”

When contacted, Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav, also the chairman of the bylaws committee, said the bylaws were framed in accordance with the guidelines prescribed in the Sabha’s constitution.

Executive director Varinder Singh Bajwa confirmed that the bylaws had been approved by the chief patron. “We have implemented the same to make the Sabha a professional body,” he said.