Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 2: In the much publicized microscopes purchase scam, which caused Rs 5.40 lakh loss to the State exchequer, Special Judge Anti-corruption Jammu Puneet Gupta has framed corruption charges against Jatinder Gupta, the then Accounts Officer, Directorate of School Education Jammu, Thakur Dass Sharma, the then CEO Poonch, Balbir Singh Jamwal, the then CEO Udhampur, Romeshwar Kumar, the then Lecturer Higher Secondary School Samba, Balwan Singh, the then Lecturer SIE, Jammu and J S Manocha, Supplier.
According to the Vigilance case, during the year 2004-2005 Education Department purchased substandard laboratory equipment including microscopes for examining properties of minerals on highly exorbitant rates.
Accordingly, joint inspection was conducted and it came to fore that in response to the tender notice issued on August 25, 2004 by the Divisional Level Purchase Committee of Education Department, M/s Cosmo Politan Traders, Vir-Marg offered quotations for supply of microscopes at the rate of Rs 1800 per microscope as against print price/bills of Rs 650 while as M/s United Sales Corporation, Jammu quoted Rs 395 per miscroscope of Ambala make.
However, the accused persons rejected the quotation of M/s United Sales Corporation without assigning any specific reason and purchased 300 microscopes from M/s Cosmo Politan Traders at highly exorbitant rates and caused loss to the State exchequer.
According to the challan, M K Dwivedi, the then Director School Education Jammu (Convener) and other members of Divisional Level Purchase Committee— Dr RR Dubey, the then Joint Director School Education, Sohan Lal Seghal, the then CEO Jammu (retired), Lalit Gupta, the then Principal SIE Jammu and Rakesh Kumar, Functional Manager Directorate of Industries and Commerce co-opted member were completely misled by the Expert Committee members.
Since the matter was technical in nature, purchase committee members believed the report of expert committee regarding quality and specification of the microscope and Vigilance Organization recommended departmental enquiry against all the members of the Purchase Committee.
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