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| Peon turned politician, GOI officials swindle crores | | CBI registers case, investigations on | | Sumit Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 7: A peon turned politician from Rajouri district in connivance with a few officials of the Ministry of Textiles Government of India allegedly swindled government funds worth crores meant for undertaking various developmental programmes for the poor artisans in the Rajouri district.
Sources told Early Times in June this year that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case against the politician and Chairman cum MD and Secretary of two NGOs M/s National Foundation and M/s United National Handicrafts (Federation) Z A Bhatti and GOI officials, V K Sarita, V K Mahajan, Maya Devi, KK Sharma and Som Nath who remained Assistant Directors (Marketing & Service) from 2005 to 2013 in Jammu and Udhampur offices of Ministry of Textiles, under FIR No. 06/2014 U/s 120-B r/w 420 467 and Section 5(2) r/w 5(1)(d) of J&K PC Act on 17-11-2014 for misrepresentation of facts, forgery, misappropriation of government funds in undertaking different training schemes/programmes and workshops of department of Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Govt of India to be executed in different villages in Rajouri district.
Sources said the accused prepared fake bills, fake acquaintance rolls and fake utilization certificates etc without conducting training programmes on ground and caused a wrongful loss of about Rs 4 crore during past 10 years. The purpose of execution of these training programmes and workshops by Ministry of Textiles is to promote the treasures of Indian and local handicrafts in the state and to enhance productivity, earning capacity and the marketability of products of local artisans.
Sources said that soon after being arrested by the CBI in June this year Bhatti during questioning confessed that he in connivance with the GOI officials had misappropriated crores of rupees meant for the poor people. He was granted interim bail by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court after remaining in CBI custody for 10-days.
Sources said Z A Bhatti, who was once peon in Government school at Rajouri, at present is a millionaire and owns palatial bungalows at Bathindi in Jammu, Sonwar in Srinagar and Punjab besides other business establishments.
Bhatti contested the elections against the former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi from Chandni Chowk in New Delhi unsuccessfully and the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Farooq Abdullah from Sonwar.
Sources said Bhatti having political connections with JK based MPs and centre level ministers helped him to procure funds in the name of his so called NGOs and allegedly managed to embezzle huge money by greasing the palms of the GOI officials.
Sources said that soon after the scandal came to fore the accused tried to pressurize the CBI officers but couldn't succeed and is all set to face the music. The case is being investigated by Muhammad Rafiq, DySP CBI Jammu.
Pertinently, there have been many instances when funds allotted for development of artisans were misappropriated at the ground level due to lesser vigilance in the far flung regions of J&K.
Apart from it, MOT has been pulled up by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on many occasions in the past. The CAG in its report on the Union government's finances tabled in Parliament in 2012 had found that two indolent Ministries i.e. Ministries of textiles and Heavy industries spent 63% and 60% of the annual expenditure on the last day of the fiscal year. |
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