The Village Industry department on Tuesday officially lodged a complaint with the lokayukta police against 10 officials and employees including one Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer.
Notably, the Sericulture Department had two days ago, decided to initiate strict action against officers and employees found guilty in enquiry regarding implementation of State government’s schemes for production of cocoons, silk thread and cloth. In view of its gravity, the case pertaining to corruption will be handed over for investigation to lokayukta.
On Tuesday, Principal Secretary of Village Industry Praveer Krishna reached lokayukta office personally and lodged a complaint.
The complaint has been filed against IFS officer SD Pateriya, RK Shrivastava, Ravindra Singh, YM Shrivastava, Pramod Pathak, Ajay Nema, DK Gupta, SS Soni, Kasturchand Choudhary and laxman lillore.
The IFS officer was then posted as Commissioner Sericulture, while RK Shrivastava was Deputy Director and remained persons were field officials.
According to Krishna, the action has been taken after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has given clear directives to senior officers last week to take suo motto action in cases of financial irregularities and corruption.
The state government wishes that all Principal Secretaries and other senior officers should themselves enquire into such cases and ensure prompt necessary action to curb corruption effectively. In this regard, Cottage and Village Industry Department has detected a grave corruption case in Sericulture Directorate and ascertained prompt action. Grave financial and other irregularities have been detected in the enquiry.
Krishna informed that funds given to silk farmers as per figures of silk area and production in the state have been embezzled. The government gives per acre subsidy to silk farmers. It was found in the enquiry that production figures were steeply increased more than actual. This was done to misappropriate subsidy given to farmers. Grave irregularities have also been detected in construction works also over the years.
Construction and store purchase rules have also been gravely violated. Work regarding cloth and thread production was also done without transparency and funds were misappropriated with nexus between officers and employees. Government’s prescribed rules as well as store purchase rules were also totally violated in training and transport processes resulting into misuse of government funds.