CHANDIGARH: The Health Minister, Punjab, Lal Singh wants a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in admission to medical colleges through nomination. This happened a lite before the Congress (l) Government was installed in the State, and after the February elections,
Lal Singh made this demand in the presence of the Chief Minister, Beant Singh, at a news conference here. Answering a volley of questions, Beant Singh said the demand would be examined The admission controversy erupted when the Health Minister alleged at a news conference at Patiala that the nominators from certain reserved category candidates were made on the basis of fake certificates. What he stated cast aspersions on the then Health Secretary,
A.K. Kundra, who, in tum, issued a strongly worded rebuttal charging the minister with issuing malicious, defamatory and factually wrong statement. The rejoinder annoyed the Health Minister so much that he wrote to the Chief Minister asking initiation of disciplinary action against Kundra for violating the All India Services (Conduct) Rule 1968.
Besides Beant Singh and Lal Singh, some other members of the Cabinet including H.S. Brar Irrigation and Power Minister who is next in seniority to the Chief Minister and Harnam Das Jauhar, Education Minister, were also present at the news conference, It appeared that the presence of so many heavyweights was meant to give moral support to the Health Minister’s crusade against Kundra, now shifted to an inferior post.
The Chief Minister, too, spoke some unsavory words about the bureaucrats who he alleged, were antagonistic to the elected Government. According to him, the senior IAS officers who mattered in the administration were giving full support to the Ministry.
Beant Singh asserted that a Minister wielded absolute powers in his department and yet he acted in a democratic manner. He justified Lal Singh’s complaint against Kundra and said that the action on it would become known shortly.
It is not unlikely that the Governor, Surendra Nath, who made the nominations, too, is drawn to the vortex of the controversy. However, Kundra, through whom the applications for nominations were processed, seems to have shielded him by his rejoinder. Neither the Chief Minister nor Lal Singh has, so far, questioned the discretion of the Governor in the nomination case.
The health Minister has quoted in his letter to the Chief Minister all the relevant Rules which govern the conduct of a member of the All India Services which, he alleged, were violated by Kundra.
Giving details of the case the health minister is learnt to have written to the chief minister that no advertisement in newspapers was given for inviting applications for nominations. However, he added that 58 applications from persons willing to get nominations were received and an interview to select candidates was conducted on October 1,1991. He said that though nominations were for the session of 1991-92 which had started on August 16, the result of the interviews was declared on February 12,1992 about three and a half months after those interviews.
The minister has reportedly written that the secretary had used the pick and chooses policy. He said that another member of the committee, Darshan Kumar, Secretary Social Welfare, was never invited to discussions.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 10, 1994
