Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 11: The infamous JAKFED scam worth over Rs 1000 crore rocked the Upper House of the J&K Legislature today with the members from even the ruling coalition alleging failure of the Government to effect recovery from the employees and others involved and take action against some top officers including IAS and KAS.
The issue was forcefully raised by Congress legislator from Bhaderwah, Naresh Kumar Gupta during the Question Hour in the Upper House today. The issue was duly supported by the NC legislator Dr Shehnaz Ganai who sought half an hour discussion on the subject as matter was of serious nature and involved huge public money. Moreover, the concerned agency has failed to effect the recovery till today.
Realizing seriousness of the issue and failure on the part of Government to make recovery from the people involved in it during the last many years, Chairman of the Upper House, Amrit Malhotra asked the minister to come out with detailed reply and also allowed half an hour discussion on the issue on the request of the members in the Legislative Council. The Chairman also asked the Government to disclose the names of senior officers involved in the scam including IAS or KAS officers.
Minister Incharge Cooperatives (Ind Charge) Dr Manohar Lal Sharma while responding to the question and subsequent supplementaries of the members said JAKFED is one of the institutions of the State registered under the Cooperative Societies Act. He admitted that major scam took place much earlier before he took over as Minister. He claimed that the scam was not of so large dimension as projected by the member but maintained that the State Government being major stake holder, intervened in the matter when it came to its notice.
The Government then appointed the then Additional Chief Secretary S L Sailova and Secretary to Government, Power vide order No. 11-GAD ( Vig) of 1998 as fact finding inquiry officers regarding embezzlement/ misappropriations committed in JAKFED.
Subsequently, in supercession of earlier inquiry, K B Pillai the then Principal Secretary to Govt PDD was appointed as inquiry officer in place of Mr Sailova vide Govt order No. 26-GAD (Vig) of 1999 dated 11-3-1999. That committee submitted the report to the Government on August 31, 2000, pointing out shortages/misappropriations/ embezzlement / retention of Government money against various Government officers/ employees to the tune of Rs 299 core.
The member pointed out that this embezzlement took place from 1993- to 1995-96 and after adjustment of many pending bills etc, the scam was worked out to be just Rs 300 crores. But it is unfortunate that recovery made was very less. Why recovery could not be made from the employees and others involved and why many top officers were left out and no action was taken against them. He asked what was the problem in revealing the names of those officers in the House.
The minister claimed that some action was also taken by the Government and the then 35 employees were also terminated. Many of them went to the Court and sought directions. On the recommendation of the Pillai Committee Special Audit Committee was constituted and it submitted its report in 2002. It pointed out outstanding of Rs 1145.87 lakh against 79 employees of JAKFED. Out of this imprest account worth Rs 893.42 lakh were pending adjustments and no accounts had been submitted for remaining outstanding of Rs 252.45 lakh. The accounts at present show that Rs 386.64 lakh has been adjusted against an outstanding of Rs 893.42 lakh and Rs 8.74 lakh has been adjusted against an outstanding of Rs 252.45 lakh. Recovery worth Rs 254 lakhs was also pending in respect of 18 cases of rice mills and from nine more employees worth Rs 39 lakhs.
The special audit established an outstanding of Rs 349.76 lakh on account of shortages against various employees. Adjustments/ recoveries have been made to the tune of Rs 196 lakh only. A total 21 FIRs were registered against the JAKFED employees and required sanction to their prosecution was also accorded in most of the cases as required by Vigilance Organisation. The case FIR No. 10/1998 pertaining to misappropriation of fertilizers in Kashmir is still under investigation by Vigilance Organisation, Kashmir. In case FIR No. 3/ 95 VOJ the matter was discussed in the BoD meeting held on 2-4-98, where in besides granting sanction for prosecution against 10 officers of JAKFED Kashmir namely Showkat Hussain the then Senior Accountant, Nazir Ahmed Shah, the then Accountant, Sayed Muzaffar Hussain the then Junior Assistant, Bashir Ahmed Bhat the then Manager Pulwama, Muzaffar Bandey, Abdul Rashid, dispatch clerks, Sayed Mukhtar junior assistant, R K Wali (JA) , Mushtaq Ahmed Mir (SA) and Bashir Ahmed Thokar (the then SA). The BoD then resolved that inquiry should also be conducted against officers- Sham Lal Sharma, Manager, Girdhari Lal Abrol ( Assistant General Manager), Shivdev Singh Chief Accountant and Mohinder Singh Chief Accountant.
The Minister admitted that no inquiry was conducted in this regard, and hence after the matter came to the notice to the current management, an inquiry has been initiated against these officers vide order No. 612/Adm/FIR 3/95/ Enq/12/252-57 dated 28-1-2012 for ascertaining their involvement in the case. It is still under process. Fifteen officers were also attached in this connection in pursuant to the Cabinet decision No. 40/2 of 21-2-2001. They included B K Bakshi, the then manager, M R Choudhary AGM, G L Abrol-AGM, S L Sharma, S B Gandotra, S K Sharma-managers, J D Dhar –Chief Accountant, Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani Ex-DGM, Raman Uppal Field Officer, Janak Singh Field Officer, Mukesh Darmal Manager, Karan Singh Senior Assistant , Om Parkash Store Keeper, Om Parkash Manager and R S Gupta Ex-Manager.
Many employees have got their recovery adjusted but there are many against whom huge recovery was pending. From B K Bakshi, manager a pending recovery of Rs 95 lakh was shown, from Ghulam Mohiuddin Rs 1.26 crore, M R Choudhary Rs 79.40 lakh, Om Parkash Rs 44.65 lakh. Sham Lal Rs 30.58 lakh, J D Dhar Rs 45.09 lakh, Ram Ditta Rs 19.97 lakh, Mohinder Rathore Rs 23.35 lakh, Janak Singh Rs 19.88 lakh, Satish Sharma Rs 13.71 lakh and Fayaz Khalil Rs 4.24 lakh. The employees from whom the recovery has been made are-Ashok Kumar driver Rs 3.11 lakh, Bhagwan Singh driver Rs 19,000 ; Bishan Dass (dvr) Rs 1.54 lakh, Bachan Lal ( dvr) Rs 8000, Chaman Lal- Assistant Manager Rs 7.10 lakh, G S Raina Manager Rs 4.74 lakh, J K Sharma Manager Rs 10,000, Jawahar Ali( Dvr) Rs 1.71 lakh, Karan Singh Senior Asstt Rs 5.18 lakh, Mukesh Damral Manager Rs 13.38 lakh, Madal Lal AO Rs Rs 16.19 lakh, Raman Uppal Manager Rs 19,000, S B Gandotra Manager Rs 26.58 lakh, Sanjeev Bhagat Manager Rs 1.48 lakh, Tara Chand (Dvr) Rs 2.22 lakh and Satpal (Dvr) Rs 1.64 lakh.
The special audit team detected retention/ re-embezzlement/ shortage/ misappropriation against total 95 employees and most of them are storekeepers and salesmen involving Rs 349.76 lakh . An amount of Rs 160 lakh claimed to have been recovered while Rs 153.69 lakh was still pending.
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