The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday suspended Haridwar district magistrate and 11 other IAS, PCS and municipal officials for conspiring to purchase ₹15 crore land at an inflated cost of ₹54 crore inflicting massive financial loss to the Haridwar Municipal Corporation(HMC).
Earlier, two Haridwar municipal officials were terminated after a probe report on the land scam was submitted to the government on May 29.
The Pushkar Singh Dhami government suspended Haridwar District Magistrate Karmendra Singh, along with another IAS officer and former HMC Commissioner Varun Chaudhary, for the land deal that turned out to be a major scam in Haridwar municipal area a couple of months ago.
The non-IAS officers suspended for the scam were Haridwar’s former SDM Ajayveer Singh, HMC Senior Finance Officer Nikita Bisht, HMC Law Officer Rajesh Kumar, Haridwar Tehsil Administrative Officer Kamaldas and District Magistrate’s Senior Personal Assistant Vicky. Action was also taken against Anand Singh Mishravan, HMC Executive Engineer in charge, Tax and Revenue Superintendent Laxmi Kant Bhatt, HMC Junior Engineer Dinesh Chandra Kandpal.
Prior to this, Services of Assistant Municipal Commissioner Ravindra Kumar Dayal and HMC Property Clerk Vedpal were terminated as the probe report was presented to the chief minister by the secretary and IAS officer Ranbir Singh Chauhan on May 29. Chauhan was appointed to a committee probing the Haridwar land scam after the matter came to the light last month.
Reacting to the decision taken by his government, the chief minister said, “Our government has made it clear from day one that public service does not have a ‘post’ but a ‘duty’. And ‘accountability’ is to be of utmost importance. No matter how senior a person or official might be, action has to be taken against him if he disregards public interest and the law. We want to develop a corruption-free work culture in Uttarakhand and public servants will have to live up to its standards.”
The land scam pertains to HMC buying an unsuitable 2.307 hectares of land near a garbage dump at village Sarai for ₹54 crore while its actual price was around ₹15 crore. The investigation report presented to the chief minister remarked that the plan to purchase the land by the HMC was unwarranted.
The report further claimed that there was no immediate need for the purchase of land by the HMC nor was the transparency maintained in the purchase process. It said the land deal struck by the municipal corporation officials, including the DM, violated the land laws of the state.
Apart from taking action against 12 officials, Dhami directed the state Vigilance Department to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the case to reveal others involved in the scam. He also issued directions to cancel the land deal and ensure complete recovery of the HCM money paid to the landowners.
Dhami also ordered a special audit of all the works done by the HMC during the tenure of suspended Municipal Commissioner Varun Chaudhary to unearth other financial irregularities.
This is the first time in Uttarakhand that the government has directly acted against top officials in its own system.