The Chhattisgarh government has ordered a probe into the appointment in the state's Public Health Engineering (PHE) department of the wife of a former principal secretary to ex-chief minister Raman Singh.
An investigation has been ordered against Yasmin Singh, then Director of Publicity and Capacity Building under Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) of PHE, based on a complaint by state Congress spokesperson Vikas Tiwari, an official said Friday.
Singh is the wife of Aman Singh, who was principal secretary to former CM Raman Singh.
As per an order issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) on Friday, Principal Secretary of Skill Development, Technical Education and Employment Department Renu G Pillay has been assigned to probe the complaint against Yasmin Singh.
A duration of three months has been fixed for the probe, it said.
As per the complaint by Tiwari, Yasmin Singh was employed as director in the CCDU in November, 2005 on a contractual basis, despite not being eligible, due to her husband's "influence".
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As per Yasmin Singh' social media profile, she is a renowned Kathak dancer.
During appointment, Singh's honorarium was Rs 35,000 per month but it was "silently" hiked to Rs 1 lakh per month, the complaint states, adding that she worked on a contractual basis for 14 years.
Despite working for 14 years till December 10, 2018, the Panchayat and Rural Development department and PHE have no records of her work, leaves, permission for performing dances and others, the complaint added.
Aman Singh, formerly an IRS officer, had joined the Raman Singh government during its first tenure (2003-2008) on contractual appointment.
The Singh couple had resigned from their respective services after the change in government in the state following last year's Assembly election.
In a statement, Yasmin Singh has refuted the charges, terming it "false, baseless and motivated.
"I have come to know that government of Chhattisgarh has instituted some kind of a departmental enquiry against me. I am yet to officially receive a notice from the state government, but news reports indicate that a member of the Congress has complained that I was wrongly appointed in the state government as a favour to my husband and that I received undue benefits from the government, Singh said.
"I want to categorically and unequivocally state that all such allegations are false, baseless and motivated. The state government has all the records which show that I was appointed as per norms, after following an open, transparent and due process and with the approval of the competent authority. My pay was also fixed with the approval of the Finance Department, she said.
"If the state government had any concerns with respect to my appointment, it should have asked the appropriate authorities who were responsible for appointing me," she said.
"It seems those at the helm of affairs in the state government are only interested in targeting members of the erstwhile administration, and their families, for political vendetta," she alleged.