Top officials skip assembly committee proceedings

NEW DELHI : Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) JB Singh and former RCS Shurbir Singh on Friday did not attend the proceedings of Delhi Assembly’s Privilege Committee, member of the panel Saurabh Bharadwaj said.

The privilege panel had on March 5 issued a notice to both these IAS officers to appear before it for not attending previous meetings of the Question and Reference Committee, which is probing an alleged Rs 100-crore scam in the Delhi Nagrik Sahkari Bank. The cooperative bank comes under the purview of Delhi government’s registrar of cooperative societies.

Bharadwaj said both the officers on Friday approached the Delhi High Court to “quash” the notice of the Privilege Committee and Question and Reference Committee in the alleged multicrore bank scam case and also “stay” the proceedings.

“The notices were not stayed.the court advised the two IAS officers that it was in their own benefit that they appear before the committee. The court, however, allowed them to appear before the committee along with their lawyers,” he said.

The lawyers of both the officers insisted they should be given relief from attending Friday’s meeting. The panel conveyed the officers that they would have to seek prior permission from the committee to come along with their lawyers in proceedings.

“The officers did not come to the meeting but conveyed that they would join further proceedings. They don’t want to answer questions related to the bank loan scam,” Bharadwaj said.

Recently, the committee served a privilege notice to chief secretary Anshu Prakash for non-appearance. The committee, however, assured the court that it would not take any action against Prakash till the next date of hearing on April 11.