The High Court of Uttarakhand in Nainital has directed the Haridwar district magistrate to lodge a criminal case against the Rural Engineering Service officer concerned for misappropriation of the Haridwar MlA Madan Kaushik’s local area development fund from 2006 to 2011.
According to the case details, Haridwar resident Dinesh Chandra Joshi had filed a petition in the High Court stating that Rs 36.70 lakh was released from the MlA’s fund from 2006 to 2011 for construction of 11 libraries in the town and procuring the books and other related facilities. The petitioner states that the RES was made the executing agency for this task but the fund was misappropriated instead of being put to intended use. The petitioner had also complained to the lokayukta following which a probe was conducted and the inquiry report was also submitted on July 3, 2012 recommending action under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the RES additional engineer Arvind Mohan Garg. The Haridwar DM’s report dated March 25, 2013 had also stated that no library was found at the designated sites in Shivlok Colony, number six Valmiki Basti, Rajivnagar, Kunjgali, Jwalapur, Aryanagar and Indrabasti where Anganwadi offices were found to be existing. Taking serious cognisance of the case, for ensuring that public money is not misused, the high court division bench of justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Sudhanshu Dhulia directed the state government to take possession of all the libraries within one month and hand over the same to the municipal corporation. At the same time, the DM has been directed to lodge a criminal case against the accused RES engineer.