Four Haryana CPSes resign
CHANDIGARH: Four chief parliamentary secretaries (CPSes) in the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government on Tuesday resigned nearly two weeks after the Punjab and Haryana high court set aside their appointment.
The CPSes — BJP legislators Shyam Singh, Bakhshish Singh Virk, Seema Trikha and Kamal Gupta — were directed to put in their papers after the state BJP leadership reportedly decided not to contest the high court decision in the Supreme Court, it has been learnt.
A two-judge bench of the high court had stayed the order for three weeks to give the ousted CPSs an opportunity to appeal in the Supreme Court. The four MLAs, who were appointed as CPSes in July 2015, handed over their resignations to the CM in Chandigarh. “The party took the decision that we should resign as CPSes. In line with the party’s instructions, we handed over our resignation to the chief minister on Tuesday evening,” Shyam Singh, who was CPS (jails, revenue and rehabilitation) said.
Sources said in the absence of clarity if the HC order could be challenged, the Khattar government couldn’t take a decision on filing an appeal in SC. “The state government may or may not approach the Supreme Court. Till Tuesday, no decision was taken on this issue,” a senior government functionary said.
Haryana advocate general (AG) BR Mahajan said: “I have not received any instruction from the state government to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. I am legally examining the issue.”
The HC had held the appointment of CPSes contrary to the intent of the 91st Constitutional amendment. The court had said the appointments were tantamount to bypassing the Constitutional mandate that limits Cabinet’s strength to 15% of the total strength of the House. Haryana has 90 member Vidhan Sabha and in the Khattar cabinet there are nine cabinet ministers, including the CM, and five ministers of state.
APPOINTED AS CPSes IN JULY 2015, THE MLAs HANDED OVER THEIR RESIGNATION TO CM
ROHTAK: A 10-year-old girl in Gohana town of Sonepat district was strangulated to death by her father because she was not getting along with his new wife.
The victim has been identified as Swati. The accused father Pradeep was arrested along with his wife Paandevi on Tuesday when they were trying to flee their village.
Police said the duo had cooked up a story that Swati died due to drinking insecticide accidentally instead of her cough syrup.
The police said the incident had occurred on July 15, when victims neighbours informed them of the mysterious death. The accused father had lodged his statement claiming death by accident and demanded no action against anyone.
When the police sent the body for postmortem, it was found that the victim died due to strangulation and not poisoning.
Police arrested the accused as they were trying to flee. During interrogation, the father revealed he killed her daughter under the influence of his new wife as the two were not getting along.