Despite Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat himself having declared an all-out war against corruption while suspending six officers, including five SDMs, in connection with the infamous NH-74 land scam and handing over the investigation to CBI few days into the office, there runs an apprehension that some leaders and officials might do everything to scuttle the probe.
Notably, CBI is yet to officially take over the probe. Significantly, leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh while talking to The Pioneer on Sunday tore into the State Government, saying that CBI was yet to step in to probe the scam despite the CM having announced it pompously many days ago. “We are baffled as to why the Centre is sitting on it despite the same party ruling the Centre and the State,” she said.
Sources privy to the functioning of the Chief Minister’s office (CMO) said that some political leaders and some bureaucrats who are in the know of the art of making money at the expense of the Government are trying all tricks in the book to see to it that the probe into the gigantic land scam is not brought to its logical conclusion. The case of an officer, currently posted in a sugar mill based in Udham Singh Nagar who was allegedly involved in the fraud of changing the land use norms to grab a huge compensation amount, being let off the hook of the probe by some wily leaders and bureaucrats is being cited as an example of the investigation being scuttled. It is learnt from sources that though the name of the officer who belongs to a particular caste figured in the list of the accused as per the supplementary report he is being helped by some leaders and officers from the same caste to be kept out of the purview of the probe. The question that is being raised is why the officer belonging to a particular caste is being given a preferential treatment while as many as six of the accused officers have been suspended.
Within a week of assuming charge as the CM, Trivendra Singh Rawat had declared a crusade against corruption while addressing a press conference in Dehradun on March 25. While announcing the decision to suspend six officers- four PCS officers and two land certification officers- with immediate effect and to ask CBI to step in to probe, he had exhorted the people of the State to lend their full weight behind his anti-graft crusade.
The NH-74 land scam case is one of the most notorious scams reported in the state since it was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. The scam related to four- laning of the highway in Udham Sing Nagar district the works of which continued for years from 2011 to 2016.
CM Rawat had made it clear that nobody, however powerful, whether in politics or in bureaucracy, would be spared if he was found having a finger in the pie. He had claimed that the fraud had been done in an extremely professional manner in cahoots with a mighty syndicate with nets spread wide. Alive to the gravity of the fraud, he had said that SIT probe was being wound up to facilitate the entry of the premier national probe agency CBI. He had further said that more heads would roll in the coming days while adding that the prompt suspension of the accused officers was an imperative to deter them from tampering with the official documents.
Notably, the scam involving Rs 240 crore in 18 different cases had surfaced after Kumaon commissioner had submitted a report following a preliminary probe. It was learnt that the land use norms had been changed to ensure that the compensation amount was hiked around 25 times higher than the actual rate of compensation. What happened was that farming lands had been shown as commercial lands by some officials in cahoots with the syndicate comprising some high and mighty to favour some with inflated compensation amounts.
The six officers who were suspended had been posted in these four tehsils- Jaspur, Kashipur, Bajpur and Sitarganj. They are are Dinesh Pratap Singh, land certification officer; Anil Kumar Shukla, special land certification officer and four SDMs, including SS Jangpangi, Jagdish lal, Bhagat Singh Fonia and NS Naganyal. Besides, Himalay Singh Martolia, a retired officer, was also mentioned by the CM as an accused in the scam.