Probe ordered into assembly staff recruitment

CHANDIGARH : Punjab speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Thursday ordered a probe into the recruitment of assembly staff during the tenure of the previous Congress government.

The speaker took the decision following a complaint from legal and legislative affairs minister Harjot Singh Bains, who alleged irregularities in the recruitment of the state assembly staff during the previous government. “I received a complaint regarding the recruitment in the assembly. We will hold an inquiry. If anything was done in contravention of rules, strict action will be taken against whosoever is found guilty,” he said, promising to make public findings of the probe.

The credentials of employees recruited in the last five years are being examined on the basis of complaint received from the cabinet minister, according to persons familiar with the development.

Bains, in his signed two-page letter to the speaker, said that 170 persons were recruited between 2017 and 2022, alleging favouritism in several appointments.

He accused former speaker Rana KP Singh, former deputy speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti, former ministers Manpreet Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who is now the president of Punjab Congress, of getting their “favourites” appointed to the staff of the state legislative assembly.

Calling the recruitment exercise a “big scam”, Bains alleged that some members of the committee set up to carry out recruitments also got their relatives appointed to by using unfair means and were equally responsible. The names of some Congress MPs and former officials of the state assembly and the state government are among those on whose recommendation jobs were allegedly given.