The inquiry commission set up to probe the Bhima-Koregaon violence case of 2018 reportedly wrote to the state government on Friday, 31 January that there was a “want of money even for day-to-day expenses”.
Claiming that commission officials had not been paid for months, the letter stated that circumstances indicated that the government was not serious about the panel’s work, Hindustan Times reported.
“The staff may not be able to continue due to want of salary,” read the letter, reportedly written to the secretary of the commission to the chief secretary and other senior officials. This development comes amid the recent fracas between the central government and the Maharashtra government over the probe being handed over to the NIA.
According to the report, the commission recommended its own winding up and spoke about senior officials being humiliated when they went to inquire about pending bills.
The commission had reportedly been set up by the previous BJP government in 2018 and was headed by retired chief justice of Calcutta high court, Jay Narayan Patel, former chief secretary Sumit Mullick and the present chief information officer of Maharashtra.
“Peons are required to borrow money for their survival. Most staff members are hired on a contract basis. They would starve for want of salary,” the letter reportedly read going on to detail the humiliation faced by the superintendent on multiple occasions and went on to claim that the initial budget of Rs 52 lakh was used up, the government delayed in issuing supplementary funds.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
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