lokayukt Justice (retd) NK Mehrotra, who reportedly take serious cognizance of government’s move to forward relief to NP Singh, managing director cum chief engineer of Construction and Design Section (C&DS) of the Jal Sasthan, had dispatched a RsSpecial Report’ to Governor, Ram Naik, on Thursday evening. He already forwarded the matter to state government related to gross corruption and to take action against the said officer after registering case under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Sources said that Mehrotra, after waiting for the government that some stern action would be initiated against NP Singh, to put a check on corruption, had finally dispatched Special report to Naik. He requested the Governor, to direct the state government to produce Action Taken Report in the said matter before the State Assembly.
It may be mentioned that the government reportedly took no action but had forwarded lokayukt’s recommendations to the Departments concerned of the above officer, to look the matter fresh including that to see whether findings of the NK Mehrotra is correct or not. Not, only this, to linger on the matter further, government directed that the findings of the Department against the said officer should be put before State Vigilance Committee, headed by chief secretary, only whose recommendations any action would be taken.
Sources said that Mehrotra, who was not happy with the indirect relief given to NP Singh, involved in corruption worth several crore of rupees, earlier had sought details of the action taken so far on his recommendations in the said case. Sources in the lokayukt office confirmed that NP Singh, had right connections in the present government hence he used it to get the recommendations of Mehrotra dumped by ordering almost fresh probe by the Department concerned in the name of cross-checking of findings of lokayukt.
Sources further confirmed that the officer was sitting safely without fear of any action as State Vigilance Committee, through which the government sought report to take action against the said officer, in almost lying defunct as no meetings or any recommendations has been made by this Committee for last few years. Interestingly, only due to this, the matter in which Government wanted to give relief to the officer has been recommended to this body.
It may be mentioned that after a probe into change of old cables in the prestigious Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute revealed multi-crore rupees scam, Mehrotra, who detected large irregularities in the above scam had recommended to get a criminal case as well as under Prevention of Corruption Act, registered against the main accused NP Singh, the MD cum chief engineer of Construction and Design Section (C&DS). He dispatched a report in this regard to chief minister as well as to chief secretary for necessary action but instead of punishment, the government reportedly forwarded relief to NP Singh, by getting the matter re-investigated.