Assam CM targets Tarun Gogoi over cash-for-job scam

Guwahati, March 3 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday indirectly attacked Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi over the allegation of favouring tainted former State Public Service Commission Chairman Rakesh Paul when Tarun Gogoi was the Chief Minister of the state.

The CM has launched a veiled attack at Tarun Gogoi for his stand promoting Rakesh Paul.

Chief Minister Sarma said, “Cong invented a new template for corruption — conceal proceeds of crime as a marriage gift. This is exactly what played out it in the wedding of an MP from the Congress.”

On Monday, during the Budget session of Assembly, he said: “At the wedding of ex-CM Tarun Gogoi, Rakesh Paul gifted gold jewelries worth Rs 3 lakh. The then Congress CM Tarun Gogoi bent rules to appoint Rakesh Paul as Chairman of the APSC. The tainted Chairman Paul first met Gogoi and then he made a request to make him a member of the Public Service Commission. If someone comes to me with such a request, I will shut his appeal immediately.”

“Paul in his letter wrote nothing about his qualification for getting a membership in the APSC except that he was an advocate in the Guwahati High Court. However, upon getting Paul’s application, Tarun Gogoi immediately forwarded it for a due consideration. This was recorded in the file and Paul was immediately made a member of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC),” the CM said, adding that for the first time in history the Chairman of the Public Service Commission and all his accomplices were sent to jail.

CM Sarma also said, “From APSC to Grade IV, we have brought transparency in all levels of government recruitments in Assam. In our government, meritorious students get government jobs as opposed to Ministers’ kin during Congress rule.”

Recently, the one man commission headed by (Retd.) Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma claimed in the report that the cash-for-job accused Rakesh Paul, the former chairman of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) had given expensive gifts during the marriage ceremony of Gaurav Gogoi.

The commission further claimed that Paul was a regular visitor at Tarun Gogoi’s residence when he was the Chief Minister and Gogoi had shown favouritism while appointing the tainted official as a permanent chairperson of APSC.

It has also been claimed in the commission report that Paul used to offer expensive gifts when he used to visit Gogoi’s official residence in Koinadhara Hills in Guwahati.

Paul and several others were charged by the court for massive irregularities in recruitments under APSC.

–IANS

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