Probe appointment of professional adviser by Randhawa: SAD

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday asked Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh to order registration of a criminal case and probe into the illegal appointment of a professional advisor by state cooperation minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and recovery of the loss caused to the state exchequer from this.

Former minister Bikram Singh Majithia said professional advisor Sidharth Shankar Sharma had been appointed illegally without taking the required cabinet approval and had been given a salary of Rs 2.60 lakh per month which was unprecedented in the history of the state.

“This salary is above that of the CM and chief secretary. It is for the first time ever that a person with little qualification is being paid more salary than the chief secretary who has more than 25 years of experience,” said Majithia.

He said that in another illegality performed to pay for the salary of this advisor, the minister had directed eight different cooperative departments to pay the salary of the advisor proportionately without moving any resolutions in this regard through their board of directors.

He asked the Congress government to probe how the cooperation department has benefitted from this appointment which took place in March last year. He said that during this period two cooperatives, Puncofed and PICT, were unable to raise any revenue. He said even the PADB had taken a loan of Rs 213 crore from cooperative banks to repay

This salary is above that of the CM and chief secretary. It is for the first time ever that a person with little qualification is being paid more salary than the chief secretary who has more than 25 years of experience

BIKRAM SINGH MAJITHIA , former minister

NABARD.

Asserting that the appointment had been done with doubtful intention, the SAD leader said when a tender was issued for providing insurance death coverage to cooperation employees, only this professional advisor was made a member of the committee and the minister directed companies concerned to contact Sharma for clarifications.

“Subsequently, the tender was given to an unknown company - Go Digit - after flouting single bid norms, allowing e-mailing instead of e-tendering and going against the guidelines of the Central Vigilance Committee (CVC).

He also flayed the Congress government’s decision to purchase 17 Innova vehicles at a cost of Rs 5 crore,” he said.