Though the Forest Research Institute has filed a police complaint against a local trading enterprise for fraud and cheating, the Forest department which has been purchasing fire fighting tools from this enterprise has not acted against officials accused of orchestrating a scam in the purchase of these tools.
Forest fires cause considerable damage every year in Uttarakhand with more than 2,500 hectares forest land being affected by forest fires in 2012 despite at least `6 crore being spent on creation and maintenance of fire lines.
In a letter to Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar, PFA has alleged that widespread corruption in the department has affected procurement of equipment for the prevention and extinguishing of forest fires.
FRI had devised fire fighting tools but there were stated as unsuitable by the then chief conservator of forests (Working Plan) in a letter to the principal chief conservator of forests in 2009 but the department continued to purchase these tools from an enterprise which has now been named in a police complaint by FRI Silviculture division head AS Rawat seeking an FIR against Atul Trading Corporation for forgery and fraud. The institute has also cancelled the certification to the enterprise because of this activists have alleged corruption in the department.
PFA Uttarakhand has demanded a high-level inquiry to review all the tenders awarded to this company since 2007 and the involvement of the CCF concerned in this scam.