The fact-finding report submitted by the State Chief Secretary on the 2013 disaster scam has stirred up a hornet’s nest with the Opposition BJP now clamouring for a CBI probe with renewed zeal. The saffron party leaders alleged that the report has sought to shamelessly bury the skeletons that had tumbled out of the State Government’s cupboard, following RTI-triggered queries. “Passing the blame to the Public Information Officer (PIO) who had blown the lid off the scam makes it clear how low the State Government can stoop to wriggle itself out of the matter. “The CM himself is involved in the cover-up operation,” said the leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt. “It is not for nothing that the Information Commissioner, a constitutional authority, has recommended a CBI enquiry into the scam. The people are anguished with the CS asking the commissioner to take punitive action against the ‘guilty’ officials for spreading misinformation, saying that their unguarded utterances had landed the State Government in embarrassment. This is pregnant with an ugly message to the honest officials — you must fall in line or else face music,” Bhatt said.
“The facts that came to light, courtesy the RTI query are grim in nature. The officials were supposed to have bought 30 litres of diesel to fill the fuel tanks of their two-wheelers. Besides, they showed bills on the count of hotel rents, claiming that they had used the hotels for accommodation since June 16. It means that they had started the rescue operation before the 16/17 June deluge struck the State. The reality is that with the State Government remaining unaware of the magnitude of the calamity, the official machinery got active on June 18, two days later,” Bhatt said.
Citing other instances of the officials tampering with the facts, he said that they had submitted a bill against a Jal Sansthan project in Pithoragarh which was started on December 28, 2013. “However, in another bill they claimed that the work was completed on November 16, 2013,” he said.
“There are such instances in galore. Take for instance the work done at Didihat. They have shown a work worth `3.45 lakh, but they have not cared to mention any date. In Kapkot they claimed to have disbursed `12 lakh but submitted receipt of mere `5,000,” the BJP leader said.
“Now consider the fact that they paid ` 98.09 lakh as a four days’ rent to the Deccan helicopter service in the aftermath of the 2013 disaster. Crores were embezzled by these unscrupulous officials who went the whole hog to milk the scam,” he said.
Rubbishing the Chief Secretary’s claim that there was nothing serious involved in the matter except some clerical mistakes, Bhatt said the report was an unabashed attempt by the state government to hush up the case.
“CS himself claimed that he had met the Chief Minister Harish Rawat thrice between June 30, the day he submitted his report and July 17, the day he made the document public. What had surfaced in the wake of the RTI query is a peanut. We exposed how big the scam is in the Assembly,” he said.
Continuing with his tirade against the state government on the emotive issue, he said that they had submitted a sting operation CD to the Speaker that made it clear how the State Government had procured kit that comprised eight daily use items meant for the disaster- affected families from a person at higher than the market price. “However, the State Government later gave a clean chit to the accused,” he said.
Citing another instance of the State Government’s nonchalance regarding the grim predicament of the deluge -ravaged people, he said that compensation amounts had been given to the wrong persons in Rudraprayag and Pithoragarh. “When the matter came to light then district magistrates sought the state government’s instruction on it. The state Cabinet decided to condone the act of the shameless people who had grabbed money meant for the disaster-struck,” Bhatt said.