Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar snubs Opposition, raises Bhupinder Singh Hooda's HCS recruitments

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

Working on the adage that offence is the best defence, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar today turned the Opposition’s adjournment motion on corruption in the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) on its head by bringing up the HCS appointments of 2013. He wriggled out of a tight spot while conceding nothing. The cash-for-job scam that rocked the appointments of dental surgeons and HCS made by the HPSC found echo in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha here today on the second day of the winter session.

An adjournment motion brought in by 25 MLAs of the Opposition, including Congress MLAs, saw heated exchanges between the treasury and Opposition benches for over three hours.

A well-prepared Chief Minister replied to all allegations about the HPSC scam and the HSSC paper leaks, gave out details of the investigation and assured the House that the guilty would not be spared.

Even as a belligerent Opposition insisted on removal of all HPSC and HSSC members and gunned for the chairman of the HPSC while demanding a high court-monitored CBI inquiry into the entire HPSC “scam”, the CM, waving a letter at the Opposition, said that he had received a complaint for inquiry into the 2013 HCS selection during Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s government in which “60 per cent” of the appointees were related to ministers and those in the Chief Minister’s office as also the HPSC chairman.

“I have a list of 17 such appointments and we can inquire into these as well because when an inquiry takes place, it will take place on all complaints. The then CM was asked about these appointments, he distanced himself completely from these saying these were made on merit by the HPSC. When we give the same logic, it is not acceptable,” he stated, putting the Opposition on the backfoot.

In the discussion, liberally peppered with couplets from both sides, the Opposition tried its best to nail the government but the Chief Minister managed to get out unscathed in the discussion while the Opposition managed to raise the issue vociferously.

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