Dehra Dun: Retired Justice S N Srivastava
has been appointed as the new chairman of a judicial panel set
up to probe alleged irregularities that took place during the
previous Congress government in Uttarakhand, officials said
here on thursday.
Srivastava, who currently heads the police complaint
authority, would replace B C Kandpal who had expressed his
desire to be relieved from the post last week.
In a letter to the state government, Kandpal, who also
holds the post of chairman of state consumer dispute redressal
commission, had said he wanted the post to be handed over to
someone else as he was "overburdened".
Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri had set up the
inquiry commission in September 2007 to prepare reports on the
alleged scams that took place during the previous Congress
government in the state.
The Kandpal judicial commission has already completed its
probe into 60 out of the total 68 scams and a report has been
submitted to the state government.
Srivastava`s appointment comes at a time when the BJP
government has directed the vigilance department to initiate
legal action against all those indicted by the inquiry
commission in 17 scams, which allegedly took place during the
N D Tiwari-led Congress government from 2002 to 2007.
These scams include those related to financial
irregularities in agriculture, irrigation and forest
departments, among others.
PTI
