Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Dec 16: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday conducted raids at the residence of some officers and officials of Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board (JKHB), Srinagar in connection with corruption charges.
An ACB spokesman said this evening that the Bureau has registered case FIR 27/2020 against the officers and officials of JKHB on the outcome of inquiry conducted by this Bureau into the allegations of procurement of material on exorbitant rates and use of substandard material in projects of construction of the buildings undertaken and progressed ahead by the Board Unit 2nd, Srinagar without tendering process during the period 2015- 2017.
He said during the probe it has been found that these works were to be executed in two-fold mechanism; labour component and material component wherein the labour component was to be executed through piece meal workers and the material was to be produced through tendering from original manufactures. Apart from lot of procurements done without tendering in conspiracy with portrayed piece meal workers, made procurement of many items on exorbitant rates.
It has surfaced that at one project in Srinagar, the excavated earth to the tune of 11756 cubic metres has been shown transported to a dumping site but the dumping site has not been identified by providing any site plan, he said adding the dumping site is located at a far distance from the project site but same has been shown located at minimum distance. The auction or sale of excavated material could have generated revenue for government as such wrongful loss has been caused to the State Exchequer.
Further, he said, the purported carriage charges of the material from excavated site to dumping site have been billed to the tune huge amounts. The billed cost amounting on account of non-existent levelling of unknown dumping site has been done. This has resulted in loss to State exchequer with consequent undue benefit to the public servants.
He said the executing agency has failed to provide any contour map or cross section depicting natural surface prior to excavation to support their claim of excavating a quantity of 11756 cubic meters of earth. The approximate loss worked out at one of the sites on account of excavation of earth work is about Rs 15 Lakh. The loss is likely to go up when the investigation of the case will move further, he said.
The allegations of nepotism in allotting works have also been levelled with respect to the other projects at different places which will be probed during investigation. These commissions and omissions on part of officers and officials of JKHB, namely Aftab Rashid Pandit, the then Deputy General Manger the Board Unit 2nd, Srinagar, Shiekh Sajjad Bashir, the then Assistant Manager and others constitute offences under section 5(1) (C), 5(1) (d) r/w section 5(2) J&K PC Act Samvat 2006 and section 120-B RPC. Accordingly, a case FIR No. 27/2020 was registered in Police Station ACB Srinagar on 15.12.2020.
Subsequently search warrants were obtained from the competent court and searches were conducted at various places. During the searches, some incriminating materials and documents were seized on spot, he said adding further investigation in to the case is going on.
