Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday ordered the registration of a first information report against nine forest officials in a Rs. 4.99-crore scam under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Ambala district. Senior officials and politicians investigated by the State Vigilance Bureau have not been named as accused.
The nine accused officers allegedly prepared fake records in the long-pending scam. They are the then Divisional Forest Officer (T), Ambala, Jagmohan Sharma; Range Forest Officer of Ambala Gokul Sharma; Range Forest Officer of Naraingarh, Rajesh Rana; Range Forest Officers of Saha Prashant Sharma, Vinod Kumar, Lakshman Das and Deepak Alavadi; Deputy Superintendent, Office of Divisional Forest Officer, Ambala (T) Chander Mohan; and Assistant of the then Account Officer in office of the Chief Conservator of Forest, Panchkula, Surender Kumar Nagar. Departmental action has been ordered against them.
Of the Rs. 46.04 crore released for Ambala under the MGNREGS, Rs. 25.13 crore was illegally allotted to the Forest Department, though under the scheme, the works should be equally shared by the gram panchayats and government agencies.
When two Additional Deputy Commissioners of Ambala had pointed out irregularities in the MGNREGS works, they were transferred out.
The Chief Minister’s order comes just a couple of weeks after reports quoting a Panipat-based RTI activist P.P. Kapoor accused the Vigilance Bureau of not coming out with the full findings of the investigation. In the case of February 2011, the role of several senior bureaucrats and forest officials was investigated, but the agency remained silent on it and refused to divulge information to RTI applicants.
Mr. Kapoor said the matter was investigated for eight months and the Bureau had indicted two bureaucrats, one a Deputy Commissioner. But the issue was sought to be brushed under the carpet under pressure from some leaders of the then Congress Government.
Recently, Minister Anil Vij, who represents the Ambala constituency, demanded that the matter pending with the Chief Secretary’s office be taken up and investigated afresh, if need be.
