Navin Chawla file missing

THE FILE containing Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's request to the government, seeking permission to set up the Lepra India Trust in 1994, has gone missing. The Ministry of Personnel and Training (P&T) had asked for the file from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). On March 29, the MHA wrote back, saying the file had been sent to the P&T in April, 1994, and never returned.

THE FILE containing Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's request to the government, seeking permission to set up the Lepra India Trust in 1994, has gone missing. The Ministry of Personnel and Training (P&T) had asked for the file from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). On March 29, the MHA wrote back, saying the file had been sent to the P&T in April, 1994, and never returned.

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This assumes significance as the trust, managed by Chawla's wife Rupika, has been in the thick of a controversy for receiving donations from Congress MPs' MPLADS funds. The NDA had petitioned the president for Chawla's removal from the EC. The president had forwarded the petition to the PM.

The PM had directed the ministries of Home, Finance, Law, P&T and Programme Implementation to look into the issues raised by the NDA -- the reason why P&T wanted the file.