JAMMU, Nov 12: A committee of the Legislative Council probing graft charges against a senior minister has been dissolved after two of its members resigned saying it was unconstitutional.
The chairman of the council, Amrit Malhotra dissolved the House Committee constituted to investigate into the allegations of land-grabbing against the Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, an official spokesperson said.
In an order issued today, he said that the House Committee has become practically infractuous due to resignation of the members of the largest political party in the House, National Conference.
Mohiuddin belongs to the Congress party which rules the state in a coalition with the National Conference.
During the recent assembly session, a member of the Legislative Council belonging to the National Panthers’ Party, Rafiq Shah had accused Mohiuddin of grabbing forest land.
A panel was constituted to probe into Shah’s accusations. But a couple of days ago, two members of the panel, Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy and Bashir Ahmad Veeri resigned stating the committee is in “violation of constitutional parameters and doesn’t meet the requirement of justice”.
“I had constituted the committee in good faith to investigate the allegations and bring facts to light, keeping the rules and conventions of the august House in view. There was no question of any malafide interest or any personal angle to this issue.
Against this background, I am convinced that the continuance of the Committee would not serve any purpose,” the chirman of the house said.
Observers say the resignations were a tactic by the NC to build pressure on the upper house chairman to dissolve the panel and thus end the probe against their coalition colleague.
Ironically the move came just days after chief minister Omar Abdullah said it was difficult to tackle graft in a coalition government as “many compromises have to be made”.
