Show-caused UT officials seek Ramanathan panel report

The former and present UT officials who were served show-cause notices by the Ramanathan Commission,in the ongoing inquiry on various issues and controversial mega-projects in Chandigarh.

The former and present UT officials who were served show-cause notices by the Ramanathan Commission,in the ongoing inquiry on various issues and controversial mega-projects in Chandigarh,have written back to the Commission,demanding the detailed inquiry report finalised by former Union Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan,who is heading the three-member Commission. Speaking to Newsline,a few of the officers,who were asked to reply on various aspects and issues handled by such officers in their official capacity within a stipulated period of time,disclosed that they had written back to the Commission seeking copies of the report.

How can anybody reply to a single-page questionnaire unless we are told in which context such questions are being put to us? If an inquiry has been conducted on certain terms of reference,such a report should be supplied to us. Then only can we give our side of the story, said one of the senior former UT bureaucrats who has been asked to explain his position on certain issues.

We cannot be given a question paper on which our replies are sought. It has to be annexed with a copy of the report which has been finalised,to the best of my knowledge. Once we go through the contents of the report,then only can it be decided how and what replies are to be given to the questions put to us, said another former senior officer of the Chandigarh Administration.

As such,it is a formal exercise adopted by all the inquiry officials. The correspondence is a mandatory requirement in such inquiries. If the Commission wants our replies to be in the right context and to the point,at least the report has to be with us so that we can get an idea of the entire episode, observed another senior officer of the Chandigarh Administration.

The Ramanathan Commission had asked officials including former UT Advisers Lalit Sharma,Varinder Singh,R S Gujaral,former Finance Secretary Karan Avtar Singh,present Finance Secretary (on leave) Sanjay Kumar,former Director (Tourism) Vivek Atray,former Director (Information Technology) Manjit Singh Brar,former Special Secretary (Finance) Raji P Srivastava and various other officers who served in the UT to reply to the specific show-cause notices issued to them.

The show-cause notices were based on three core issues allotment of land to various companies in Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park,land acquisition for the third phase of the Park and the Parsvnaths Prideasia project.

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