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| Omar led regime allotted shop sites meant for farmers to favourities | | Multi-crore scam surfaces in HPMD Jammu | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 15: A multi-crore scam, dating back to the Omar Abdullah regime, has surfaced in the Horticulture Planning & Marketing Department (HPMD), whereby shop sites at fruit mandis meant for poor farmers and other genuine stakeholders into the trade were "secretly" sold to influential people including relatives of Mantris and Babus.
Though the Vigilance Organization Jammu has started "preliminary investigations," sources said the department was under pressure to "hush up the case" as otherwise many officials in the good books of PDP led coalition would land in trouble.
Sources said in the year 2013 and 2014, HPMD gave away shop sites meant for poor to influential businessmen in Jammu province.
Under a Centrally sponsored scheme, the HMPD had to allot hundreds of shop sites at Government run mandis to growers and local people into the trade in Jammu province. The beneficiaries were supposed to subsequently develop the allotted space into shops, wherefrom they could run their business.
Such shop sites were developed by Government at whole-sale fruit and vegetable mandis in Rajouri, Kathua, Bishnah, Akhnoor, Udhampur and Chadwal areas of Jammu province. "But a few officers of department of Horticulture Marketing and Planning indulged in mass scale criminal conspiracies of cheating the Government, genuine fruit and vegetable traders, farmers and unemployed educated youth by allotting shop sites to their favourite persons in lieu of kickbacks worth millions," said a source in the HPMD.
"This sell out of shop sites was in brazen violation of the Government guidelines which demanded for allotment of shop sites to affected traders/ farmers on priority through open auction or draw of lots after giving full publicity in print media," said a HPMD official. "But what happened was that the deals were done secretly thereby depriving the genuine cases of their share," he added.
Sources in the Vigilance Organization Jammu (VOJ) office said they have received credible inputs that then , Assistant Director, alongside the then Director HPMD, played a major role in getting the shady deals inked. "He used to be Assistant Director HPMD but for the illegal allotment of shop sites he was promoted as Deputy Director HMPD," said a source.
A VOJ official said the department has received complaint that apart from people having political connections the Deputy Director allotted the space to kiths and kins of those working in HPMD and known to him. "Those who were given the shops include a brother Assistant Grading Marketing Officer, father of Area Marketing Officer, father of Grading Inspector, and a retired employee of Horticulture Planning & Marketing Department," the sources said.
Citing example the sources said at Bishnah mandi, a good number of general merchandise shop sites were allotted to selective persons in clear violation of Government guidelines without any requisite auction of the space. "Likewise shop sites have been allotted at Chadwal Mandi to favourites after charging hefty amount of money as illegal gratification. The department did not publish any notice or fraud selection lists of Chadwal and other mandis in newspapers," the sources said.
Sources said a PDP Minister, whose family is into horticulture business and also runs a full-fledged apple juice plant in Kashmir, was trying to hush up the case for personal interests and to "show their monopoly in the department." "The Mantri has got one of the previous HPMD directors, who was his loyalist, transferred to a prize posting in Srinagar on assurance to the Chief Minister that the official is honest. If the same official is booked by vigilance, the Mantri will be in trouble before Mufti Sayeed and thus to save his skin, he is trying his best to hush up the case," the sources said. "Otherwise also to show his influence in HPMD, the mantri is trying that no official in his good books is touched," the sources said
When contacted a senior VOJ official confirmed that "it seems to be a scam." "We have started preliminary investigations particularly with regard to a top official of the department," the VOJ official told Early Times. He, however said, a full-fledged probe would be started only once they get a nod from the Government. |
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