The district magistrate Pauri Chandra Sekhar Bhatt denied on Tuesday of any knowledge about the letter written by the secretary, Uttarakhand Government on the alleged financial irregularities and misuse of funds by the Pauri Nagar Palika Parishad and said he would clarify things on Wednesday.
Notably,Commissioner Garhwal C S Napalchayal had submitted the inquiry report on the financial irregularities and misuse of funds by the Pauri Nagar Palika Parishad to the Uttarakhand Government.
Acting on this report, the secretary, Uttarakhand Government had asked the Pauri district magistrate who is also the inquiry officer, to name of persons who are involved in the irregularities and misuse of funds.
The DM being in the denial mode is surprising, given the fact that the DM office had received the State secretary’s letter nearly two weeks ago. “It is surprising why things are taking so much time to be brought to their logical conclusion,” an observer said.
It is pertinent to mention that acting on the memorandum served by seven out of the eleven Pauri Municipal Board members Garhwal Commissioner had appointed DM the inquiry officer, asking him to conduct probe and submit the report within one week.
District magistrate had submitted the inquiry report to the Garhwal commissioner on February 6. Commissioner Garhwal had taken around eight months to send the report to the State Government.
Commissioner told The Pioneer that the inquiry reports had included seven points, but found substance in two of them.
They included the demolition of guest house without the board’s consent and irregularities in lottery conducted by the Municipal Board president Yashpal Benam. The report had been sent to State Government with the recommendation of necessary action against those involved in the graft. However, putting the onus to name those involved on the DM, the State Government had asked him to name them before any action being taken against them.