The Congress today asked the Uttarakhand government to act on the recommendations of the Bhati Commission which probed a series of scandals, including alleged irregularities in the Uttarakhand Tarai Seed Development Corporation, that rocked the previous BJP government in the state.
Congress MLA from Ranikhet Karan Mahra raised the issue in the state assembly after the question hour when the House was discussing admissibility of the opposition's notice for holding a debate on it.
Mahrasaid the TSDC was a prestigious undertaking at one time but a "scamrunning into crores of rupees", which also saw violation of norms in appointment of its chairman, rocked it between 2007-12.
A one-man commission headed by retired IAS officer K R Bhati which probed the scam in the corporation along with a series of others submitted its report to the state government in March 2013 itself but the government never acted on the Bhati commission's recommendations.
Waving a copy of the report in the House, Mahra read passages from it which spoke of violation of norms in the appointment of its chairman.
Mahra said government functionaries had been indicted in no uncertain terms by the commission in the scam. He asked whether the present BJP government "which claims to have a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption" would bring those held guilty by the commission to book.
Disputing admissibility of the notice as the commission submitted its report to the previous government and not to the present one, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant said some of the members occupying opposition benches today were ministers when the Bhati Commission submitted its report to the government.
"So, they are in a better position to answer why the commission's report was not made public or why there was no action on its recommendations," Pant said.
However, Pant said the state government will examine the legality of the points raised by the opposition and initiate appropriate action accordingly.
Former Congress chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, who is now with the BJP, had instituted the Bhati commission of inquiry into a series of scandals including alleged irregularities worth crores in TSDC, irregularities in allotment of 56 hydropower projects, Citurgia housing project, Mahakumbh Mela and various other projects during the BJP government headed by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
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