Khattar ‘adjusts’ RSS man in KDB

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, February 21

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has appointed an RSS man at a specially created post in the Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB).

Ashok Sukhija, convener of the BJP’s monitoring committee for the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, has been ‘adjusted’ as honorary secretary of the KDB that is mandated to maintain various religious and historical sites falling in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Karnal and Panipat districts.

Sources said the political appointment would not be in the administrative interest of the board, which was facing staff shortage for decades.

“The KDB is surviving on the outsourced staff. Even the post of Chief Executive Officer is given as an additional charge to the Kurukshetra City Magistrate. It would have been in the interest of KDB if a professional was hired to meet the target of making Kurukshetra a major international tourist destination,” said a source requiting anonymity.

The Governor and the CM are the ex-officio chairman and vice-chairman of the KDB, respectively. Several cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats are members of the KDB’s board of management.

Notably, in the last Assembly elections, Sukhija had opposed Khattar’s candidature from the Karnal constituency. Sukhija, who was the BJP district president then, wanted to contest the elections from his home constituency.