Haryana sends file for Presidential reference

Chandigarh: With the government of Haryana forwarding the file to Government of India, now all decks are cleared for the prosecution sanction of the then chairman and members and those involved into the alleged recruitment scams which took place in Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) between 2000 and 2004.
If all goes as per plan, the bureau is expecting to get a go ahead from the Centre by the month of January. Since HPSC is a statutory body, hence any action against this agency or its members requires presidential reference.
With this, now, the chairman and members, staff, examiners and others indicted by Haryana State Vigilance Bureau are faced with the prosecution in the 17-year-old case. Besides this, the other officials of the Haryana government too are faced with the prosecution as the bureau has also started preparing their files as well.
Notably, the issue relates to the recruitment of HCS and allied services carried out in the year 2002 and 2004 and the recruitment to the posts of Assistant professors conducted by HPSC in the year 2003. A case was registered into this scam in the year 2005.
Among the HPSC officer bearers and staff against whom the file has been forwarded to Government of India for Presidential reference include former chairman K C Bangar, then secretary Hardeep Singh, then members Mahender Singh Shastri, N N Yadav, Jagdish Raj, Dr Meher Singh Saini, Narender Vidyalankar, Dayal Singh, Suresh Gupta,
While then examiners included J C Kappan, S K Verma, Prof V K Mauli. Notably, some of the examiners and members against whom the sanction has been sought have already passed away.
While, Hardeep Singh , who has retired as senior IAS officer has also filed a protest petition to the office of Haryana chief secretary.
Sources in state vigilance bureau were tight lipped on the action against the beneficiaries of the recruitment of the said case. `` This is under examination. One thing is for sure that anyone whose prosecution is required to make the case strong shall be added. Since, the candidates were not part of Commission and they were not even in the government service, hence they were not added. But, they are still under the scanner for the future,’’ said an official.
It may be recalled that the HSVB had been working overnight since September to get the prosecution sanction against the accused for filing of charge sheet.
The files related to the permission had been shuttling between the office of chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal and Bureau for the want of clarification. Since chief secretary heads the Vigilance department, hence his office claims that it ensured the zero error file before recommending the same to CM office for further forwarding to Government of India.