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| Fraudulent withdrawal of relief, If dug up, can open Pandora's Box | | Some Relief Organisation employees already facing allegations of corruption | | Bharat Bhushan
Jammu, Jan 20: The fraudulent withdrawal of cash relief by a migrant, as detected by crime branch (CB) of police yesterday, is not an isolated case. Earlier also, migrants have been booked for such offences. If CB takes a little pain to dig the case further by scrutinising the record of the past two decades of relief organisation (RO), it is sure to open the pandora's box. The scam thus unearthed may turn out to be the biggest ever in the state.
CB Thursday booked Shadi Lal Pandita of Jagti for having withdrawn about Rs 30 lakh of relief money by fraud from the government treasury to secure unfair gain.
Under the migrant category, one family is entitled to only one relief card (chandi). Pandita was found to have prepared eight fictitious cards of different zones on the names of his family members.
Apart from rice, flour and sugar, each migrant family is given a cash relief of Rs 5,000 per month but Pandita was withdrawing Rs 40,000.
If CB scrutinises thoroughly the RO record, it was sure to lay hands on several such cases. As some old RO employees were already faced with serious allegations of corruption, the CB could start its probe by questioning them first.
Sources in RO said these employees knew in detail about the fake ration card holders who had been enjoying all the benefits under migrant category for the past two decades now.
One of these employees had remained very close to almost every relief commissioner who had headed the organisation in the past over a decade, the sources added.
Sources said the role of some relief commissioners was also dubious and there was an emergent need to check the files processed during their tenures in the department.
Some Jammuites, including Kashmiri Pandits who were not migrants, also possessed cards, the sources added.
A contractor-turned-real estate dealer, who is said to be the confidant of a minister, also had relief cards on different fictitious names. He lives at Shastri Nagar.
Sources said there were some fictitious car holders at the Nanak Nagar relief counter. Some clerks and other employees there knew about them and if CB grilled them, they were likely to spill the beans, the sources added.
Sources said there were fictitious card holders, including locals, at almost all the relief counters here.
When a criminal was killed in a police encounter at Gandhi Nagar along with Riaz over a decade back, several fake migrant cards were recovered from his scooter. Almost every city goon secured a card after the process of registration of migrants started here nearly two decades back.
A Jammu-based senior bureaucrat, who was made incharge of the process of registration of migrants two decades back, also remained under the scanner of state
vigilance organisation for quite some time for his alleged role in promoting corrupt relief zonal officers.
Cash relief had become a source of income for many, including officials and city goons. A criminal of Shakti Nagar was among those who had withdrawn cash relief in lakhs. As goons later started clashing over the possession of cards, this criminal had shifted to New Delhi and settled there, the sources added.
Sources favoured the constitution of a CB team of police officers who had a clean track record to probe into the bunglings in the organisation. |
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