The State Cabinet held a meeting presided over by State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh on Sunday and decided to withdraw the notification issued by the Governor during President’s rule asking the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate into the sting operation which had shown Chief Minister Harish Rawat meeting a middleman purportedly regarding payments to legislators for remaining loyal to the Congress. To avoid charges of bias, the CM kept himself busy visiting Kedarnath while the cabinet meeting was being presided over by Hridayesh on Sunday. The State’s chief secretary Shatrughna Singh said this while briefing the media after the cabinet meeting in the secretariat here.
Singh said that as state government is competent to conduct inquiry on such issues, the state has authority to withdraw the notification, which was sent by governor on April 2, 2016 appealing for a CBI probe into the sting operation, with immediate effect. He further said that today the State would inform the CBI through fax and then send formal letter too. Replying to media queries about any instances where state had revoked notification of CBI inquiry, the chief secretary said that in Sikkim, the state government had withdrawn the CBI inquiry recommendation. He further said that as currently there is no advocate general in the state, the State has taken legal opinion from assistant advocate general and law department as well. Thereafter cabinet has taken the decision.Chief secretary reiterated that cabinet is insistent on bringing out truth so they have empowered chief secretary to constitute special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the case. He said that there is a provision that when state realizes that they can’t conduct inquiry then state recommends for CBI inquiry. In this case state is competent to conduct inquiry through its own agency. As CBI has not proceeded with the probe and currently it is in the preliminary stage so it can be withdrawn. If CBI would have lodged FIR then it might have been difficult for the state to revoke but in this case CBI investigation is in preliminary stage.
For the first time in the 16-year old history of Uttarakhand, the chief minister has delegated power to his cabinet colleague who took a decision which is expected to heat up the political scenario at both the Central and State levels considering the material the opposition has found for lambasting and questioning the Congress and its government in Uttarakhand. Apart from this, the cabinet also three other decisions- first they passed the public service commission annual report for the year 2013-14 and 2014-15. Cabinet has also approved amendment in public service commission judiciary service.