Times of India: Panchakula: Friday, September 22, 2017.
The rank and
file of the Haryana irrigation department is indicted in the state vigilance
bureau inquiry into the escalation of Kaushalya dam's cost from Rs 51 crore to
Rs 216 crore.
Acting on the
findings, chief secretary D S Dhesi has asked the principal secretary of
irrigation to act against 23 officials, including retired engineers-in-chief,
chief engineers, and superintending engineers. In its 15-page report to the
chief secretary , the vigilance bureau has claimed that the previous state
government altered the dam's plan to benefit private builders, who came out
with residential colonies in PinjoreKalka Urban Complex between 2005 and 2009.
Chief
minister Manohar Lal Khattar had ordered the investigation based on a complaint
from Kalka senior Congress leader Vijay Bansa, who also leads Shivalik Vikas
Manch non-government organisation (NGO). The dam in Panchkula is in controversy
since 2009 when the-then Haryana government of the Congress widened it from 13
to 30 feet to make a road connecting the national highway with the housing
colonies of the private developers.
The documents
that Bansal secured from the vigilan ce bureau under the RTI (Right To
Information) Act suggest that the officials not only avoided the regular
process of survey but also skipped taking clearance from the environment
department. "The main allegation is that they used the minerals extracted
from the riverbed without any record. We wait for the irrigation department to
respond," Bansal said.
He ducked
questions related to possible action against the-then chief minister Bhupinder
Hooda and the bureacrats who cleared the project.Since Huda (Haryana Urban
Development Authority) has declined to use water from the reservoir, the
project has turned out to be a wasteful expenditure of the state irrigation
department. It came out in the CAG (comptroller and auditor general) report of
2014 as well.
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