SC panel issues warrant against MP Chief Secy

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Monday issued a warrant for production of the Chief Secretary before it.

Taking its ongoing confrontation with the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh to a new level,the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Monday issued a warrant for production of the Chief Secretary before it on Wednesday.

The Commission said the Chief Secretary ignored several notices to appear before it in a matter that involves the alleged appointment of general category candidates to reserved posts.

The Commission faxed the warrant to the Bhopals Superintendent of Police on Monday,when the Chief Secretary failed to turn up in response to yet another reminder.

DGP S K Raut said the warrant has been sent to the legal department for its opinion. We are not sure if a faxed document can be treated as a warrant, he said.

Commission member Mahendra Boudha said Article 338 (clause 8) empowers the body to summon and enforce the attendance of any person from any part of India. The power is rarely used,but the Commission was left with no option because the government and its officers chose not to respond to notices, he said.

The Commission,he said,had received several complaints from SC officers and employees that the state had changed its statutes to fill up reserved posts with general category candidates.

Boudha said 850 such appointments,including five posts of officers,were made in the Energy department while Irrigation,PWD and Public Health Engineering departments also saw such illegal appointments.

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The Commission began by sending notices to Secretaries/Principal Secretaries of the departments. Some officers either turned up in person or sent incomplete information in the first few months. Lately,however,they stopped taking notices or misled the Commission,alleged Boudha,who was a minister in the Congress government.

Chief Secretary Avani Vaish was present in Delhi on one of the dates he was asked to appear and the Commission itself was present in Bhopal but he chose not to appear.

The Commission was in Bhopal recently to investigate reports in a section of the media that Dalits were being discriminated against in Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans native village Jait. However,when the Commission,led by Chairman Buta Singh,visited a temple in Jait where Dalits were allegedly not allowed to enter,it found the complainant singing bhajans in the temple.