Taking strict action in the Haridwar land scam, seven more officers including two IAS and one PCS were suspended.
The Uttarakhand government has suspended Haridwar District Magistrate Karmendra Singh and former Municipal Commissioner of Haridwar Municipal Corporation Varun Chaudhary. Apart from this, PCS officer Ajay Veer has also been suspended. Actually, these officers had shown negligence and carelessness in buying land. Officials said here that on the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, 10 officers have been suspended so far in this case, while the service extension of two personnel has been terminated.
From the date of application to the issue of the permit, the then SDM Ajay Veer Singh completed all the work in just seventeen days. The Misalband (Misal settlement) which is made in the SDM court from October 1, instead of submitting it, he made a new Misalband (register of revenue cases).
Rules were bypassed There was a stir in the state after a
case came to light in which Haridwar Municipal Corporation changed the land use of 2.30 hectares of unsuitable and cheap agricultural land located near the garbage dump in Sarai Village and bought it for Rs 54 crore, which was more than three and a half times the market price. The investigation found that there was neither any actual need for this land nor was a transparent bidding process adopted. Apart from this, the deal was done in a suspicious manner by bypassing clear rules of the government in the land purchase.
CM Dhami had ordered an inquiry.
In the investigation conducted by the Municipal Commissioner of Haridwar Municipal Corporation, serious irregularities were found prima facie. After this, taking cognizance of this, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami handed over its investigation to the state's Sugarcane and Sugar Secretary Ranveer Singh Chauhan, who submitted his report on May 29. As soon as the investigation report was received, the Chief Minister directed the Personnel Department to take action against the guilty officers, after which orders were issued to suspend all the seven accused officers.
These officers suspended on Tuesday include Karmendra Singh, Varun Chaudhary and the then Sub-District Magistrate Ajayveer Singh, besides Senior Finance Officer Nikita Bisht, Senior Personal Assistant Vicky, Registrar Kanungo Rajesh Kumar of Haridwar Tehsil, Chief Administrative Officer Kamaldas of Haridwar Tehsil.
Earlier, in this case, Executive Engineer in charge Anand Kumar Mishravan, Tax and Revenue Superintendent Laxmikant Bhatt, Junior Engineer Dinesh Chand Kandpal of Haridwar Municipal Corporation were already suspended, while the service extension of Assistant Municipal Commissioner in charge Ravindra Kumar Dayal and property clerk was terminated.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that from day one, his government has made it clear that in Uttarakhand, not 'post', but 'duty' and 'accountability' are important. He said, "No matter how senior a person is, if he disregards public interest and rules, action is certain. We want to develop a new corruption-free work culture in Uttarakhand. All public servants will have to live up to its standards.''
The Urban Development Department had appointed IAS Ranveer Singh Chauhan as the investigating officer for the preliminary investigation. In his investigation, the investigating officer has found Haridwar District Magistrate Karmendra Singh, who was also the administrator of the Municipal Corporation, prima facie responsible for ignoring his official duties, not following the prescribed procedure while granting permission for land as an administrator and not keeping in mind the interests of the Municipal Corporation, ignoring government orders and violating the relevant sections of the Municipal Corporation Act 1959. He has been suspended on serious charges. Along with this, the Governor has also given approval to take disciplinary action against IAS Karmendra Singh.
PC:NDTVINDIA