Just a few days after leveling allegations of attempts being made to facilitate dubious appointments allegedly through the back door in the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation (FDC) , the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhasn has leveled another allegation- this time at the chairman of the corporation, Harish Dhami. Addressing the media persons at the Bharatiya Janata Party State office here on Thursday, the party spokesman Vinay Goyal averred that the chairman of the corporation is involved in scams amounting to crores of rupees.
Goyal said that recently, after the BJP raised the issue of attempt to make back door appointments in the Uttarakhand forest development corporation, the high court of Uttarakhand had ordered a stay on these appointments. The BJP State spokesman said, “This time a new scam has been brought to light in the functioning of the corporation. The corporation chairman cancelled bids received for construction of boundary wall around the lalkuan depot of the forest development corporation. The estimated cost of construction of the boundary wall in these bids was about Rs 4.41 crore.
However, these were cancelled and fresh bidding was facilitate in which the estimated cost of construction of the boundary wall was stated at thrice the earlier stated cost—Rs 12 crore—with the said task being executed.
This case clearly appears to be an orchestration of a scam for which a capable agency should be deputed for investigation to ascertain the truth,” said Goyal. Accusing the Uttarakhand forest development corporation chairman of corrupt practices, the BJP State spokesman further alleged that Dhami had ‘distributed’ Rs 10 crore corporate social responsibility fund of the UFDC among his trusted persons. This is also a matter for investigation which should be conducted to ascertain the truth, he added.
It will be pertinent to mention here that the Uttarakhand forest development corporation has been facing various issues including its own employees protesting against anomalies and in support of their demands. Apart from this, the BJP had some days ago raised the issue of a private agency being hired to conduct the recruitment of applicants to 190 posts in the corporation allegedly in blatant violation of the regulations. The party had alleged that the Rs 1 crore contract was awarded “arbitrarily” to the private company without any tender being floated as required for selectin of the agency.
Observers point out that though Uttarakhand is known for its rich environmental wealth, the nexus of politicians, government departments and agencies entrusted with guarding and managing these resources ends up facilitating blatant violations of the law. The illegal riverbed material quarrying being continued blatantly even in the state capital is also one of the dubious facets which have consistently elicited questions and oppositions without the required action being taken by the authorities concerned, add the observers.