HC seeks to know from where retired officer secured Ghose Commission report

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday sought to know from IAS (retired) officer Shailendra Kumar Joshi from which source he secured the report of Justice (retired) P.C. Ghose Commission that inquired into alleged irregularities in execution of the Kaleshwaram project.

The bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin raised this query while hearing a writ petition filed by him seeking suspension of the Commission’s report. The retired officer served as Principal Secretary for Irrigation and Command Area Development during BRS rule and certain observations were made by the Commission against him in its report.

Along with suspension of the report, the retired official also wanted a direction staying all further proceedings to be initiated based on the report in the backdrop of the State government assigning the investigation to the CBI. The bench declined to pass orders staying the Commission’s report and directed the petitioner first to inform the bench as to how he secured it. The government counsel informed the bench that the report was not officially uploaded in any government website. The petitioner’s counsel contended that the mandatory notices under Section 8C of the Commissions of Inquiry Act were not served on the retired officer.

Food at residential schools

The bench, hearing a PIL petition over the facilities being provided to inmates of government residential schools including the quality of food served to them, said food adulteration could be checked only if the teachers consumed the food along with the students. The bench said such actions would curtail food poisoning instances in the government educational institutions.

The bench made this observation when advocate Chikkudu Prabhakar brought to its notice about an interim application explaining the multiple food poisoning cases reported in government residential schools in different parts of the State. The Additional Advocate General Mohammed Imran Khan informed the bench that no inmate of any government school died of food poisoning.

Immediate medical assistance was extended to students who fell sick due to food poisoning. The CJ noted that if the teachers consume the food served to students the issue of food adulteration can be checked.