The members of a Delhi Assembly panel recommended privilege proceedings for "contempt of House" against Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash after he skipped its meeting on alleged irregularities in a cooperative bank. Prakash and two other IAS officers skipped the proceedings of Delhi Assembly's Questions and Reference Committee with regard to a scam in the Delhi government's cooperative bank.
The committee, headed by Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, also recommended action against the office bearers of the IAS Officers' Association for asking the bureaucrats to "boycott the meetings called by House panel". However, senior bureaucrats claimed that the committee itself flouted the guidelines by calling outsiders in the proceedings.
"This is in contravention of Rule 175 of rules of procedure and conduct of business of Delhi Legislative Assembly," said a senior IAS officer. As per the rule, the discussions of the committee shall not be disclosed to any person present at the sitting, nor shall any reference to such discussion be made in the house.
AAP's Delhi unit spokesperson, Saurabh Bharadwaj, who was present in the meeting had requested the Speaker to invite the media to discuss the alleged fraudulent loans in cooperative banks.
"All members have recommended to initiate privilege proceedings for contempt of House against Anshu Prakash, JB Singh and Shurbir Singh for skipping meetings and also against IAS associations for asking officers to boycott the House proceedings," he said.
Last month, the Delhi Assembly's Petitions Committee had recommended "criminal proceedings" against two IAS officers for providing "help and aid to the corrupt" in connection with the alleged irregularities in Delhi Nagrik Sehkari Bank Ltd.
The panel had recommended that the Chief Secretary should submit an action taken report in the House within a month. "The chief secretary should initiate criminal proceedings against Shurbir Singh and JB Singh for their acts of commission and omission to help and aid the corrupt," the committee had said in its report.
