Firing another salvo at Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, who has been under the line of fire of the saffron camp since he allegedly played a partisan role when the Harish Rawat Government was embroiled in a grave crisis following nine Congress MlAs turning rebel, the State BJP chief spokesperson Munna Singh Chouhan alleged on Tuesday that he was involved in the recruitment scam that has unfolded recently.
Notably, the controversy came on the top of the one he has been grappling with over the allegedly blatant favouritism shown to the people of his constituency Jageshwar people as regards the disbursal of the Speaker’s discretionary fund.
The state BJP leader said that the Speaker had recruited 97 people in Vidhan Sabha most of whom were from Jageshwar Assembly constituency he is an MlA from.
“Around 70 percent of the people recruited are from a particular Assembly constituency, a figure that says how he is trampling upon norms in his desperation to woo his electorate,” he said. He added that things were crystal clear despite postal addresses being tweaked to hide the fact. “To defend the Speaker on the discretionary fund controversy, the CM said he had done nothing wrong to help some people from his constituency, given his strong connect with them. We are sure he would resort to the same defence when it comes to the recruitment scam. But the people understand how serious the offence is. As the Speaker, he is expected to rise above his parochial interests to serve the people of the state at large,” Chouhan said.
“Though the Speaker enjoys immunity within the Assembly he does not enjoy the same status outside the Assembly,” he said, adding that the CAG report had corroborated the allegation against him.
The BJP leader also raised favouritism allegation against another Congress leader Harish Dhami who had vacated his Dharchula seat to make room for the Chief Minister Harish Rawat to step in the Assembly through by-election. Notably, Dhami was given the charge of forest development corporation by the grateful CM after he showed his generosity. He was given the status of a cabinet minister too.
Chouhan said that Dhami had blatantly misused his power to woo the electorate of Dharchula. “He disbursed a major chunk of FDC fund among those living in the constituency he earlier represented,” he said.
Chouhan further said that satat vikas and sankalp yatra (consistent development and pledge rally) the Congress has embarked on is a copy cat of BJP’s Parivartan Yatra. “Bereft of originality, they are desperately falling back upon what we are presenting to the people. It is a pity,” he said.