Chandigarh, 28 September(Wishav Warta): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked the Congress government to disclose why it had flouted its own rules to give an out of turn appointment as DSP to the grand-son of former CM Beant Singh who had graduated through distance education mode while making this a cause for denying government service to other candidates.
In a statement here, former minister and SAD spokesman Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said it was shocking that the government had denied appointment to 192 candidates who had been selected as clerks because they possessed a graduation degree from universities outside the State but recruited Guriqbal Singh, the grand-son of former CM Beant Singh, who possesses a distance education degree from Periyar University, Salem.
Speaking about the conduct of the Congress government, Dr. Cheema said “wasn’t it enough that you relaxed the upper age limit for appointment as DSP to accommodate the former CM’s grand-son? Now it has come to light that you even flouted several rules including those of the UGC which state that no university – central, state or private can offer its programmes through franchising agreement with private coaching institutions even for conducting courses through distance education”. He disclosed Gur Iqbal had cleared his B com degree while sitting for examination at the varsity’s study centre MS Institute in Delhi.
Demanding that Gur Iqbal’s appointment be scrapped immediately, the Akali leader said there could not be two sets of rules for two different kinds of candidates. “When 192 candidates have already been denied government jobs on the same issue how can the State government recruit Gur Iqbal? The only possible reason could be Gur Iqbal’s VIP stature considering that his brother Ravneet Bittu is a Congress mp from Ludhiana and his cousin is a Congress legislator from Khanna”.
Dr. Cheema said this was not the only case of nepotism in Congress rule. “The government has also refunded Rs 84 lakh charged in the form of penal rent from former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal back to her. This despite other politicians being charged penal rent for overstaying in government accommodation”, he added.