Let it go

NGO seeks withdrawal of all facilities to former CMs:

A Dehradun-based NGO has moved a petition in the Uttarakhand High Court for quashing the state government's decision to provide certain facilities to four former chief ministers. Following the petition, a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Nirmal Yadav asked the NGO Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) to file an additional affidavit till February 15 on the status of facilities being enjoyed by former chief ministers in all the other states of the country, Pallavi Bahuguna and Kartikey Hari Gupta, the counsels for RLEK, said.

Describing the decision as "arbitrary and illegal", the RLEK in its petition said the government is "misusing" the public money in the name of providing the former chief ministers various facilities like bungalows, security personnel, clerical staff, drivers/cleaners, domestic helps when some of them had occupied the top posts for a few months only.

The petitioner claimed that the state government had already spent Rs 9.28 crore till September 2010 on such facilities to the four former CMs -- N D Tiwari (Congress), B.C. Khanduri, Nityanand Swami and B.S. Koshiyari (all BJP) in the state where the condition of the poor people have failed to improve during the past ten years.

In this regard, the petitioner also highlighted the rising fiscal deficit and revenue deficit of the state and said loan indulgence in the state has touched Rs 20,000 crore by the year 2010-11.

The petitioner further claimed that when the government is spending crores of rupees on "extravagant lifestyles" of these former chief ministers and was finding it difficult to pay the salaries of its own employees. The NGO also cited an example of the state of Jharkhand where such facilities had been withdrawn to former chief ministers due to mounting burden on the state exchequer. RLEK also said in its petition that Uttarakhand was providing such facilities to ex-chief ministers merely by an office memo and without any legislative sanction or a Constitutional provision.