SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Sept 29: The Jharkhand High Court today directed the State government to file a status report on a probe into the distribution of toffees and T-shirts worth crores of rupees in the year 2017 on the occasion of Statehood Day.
A hearing was held on Friday on a PIL filed in the Jharkhand High Court demanding an investigation into the distribution of toffees and T-shirts worth crores of rupees in the year 2016 in the name of Foundation Day. The court directed the State government to present the complete status report of the action taken so far in the last three months.
Notably, during the tenure of the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das, T-shirts worth Rs 3.5 crore and toffees worth Rs 35 lakh were distributed in a single day. After which RTI activist Pankaj Yadav dubbed the matter of distribution of T-shirts and toffees by the Raghubar government in the name of Foundation Day as suspicious, saying that it is a well-planned scam and had filed a PIL demanding its investigation.
What is the case?
Independent MLA Saryu Roy had lodged a complaint with the ACB requesting an investigation into the scam related to the distribution of toffees, T-shirts, and decoration of song-music gathering among school children on November 15 during Jharkhand Foundation Day celebrations in 2016 and 2017 and decoration of Ranchi city. The Jharkhand government had purchased printed T-shirts and packets of toffee on a nomination basis without floating a tender to give to the children attending Prabhat Pheri on the morning of Jharkhand Foundation Day celebrations 2016 on the pretext of paucity of time.
According to the complaint, toffees were purchased from Lala Enterprises located in Sidhgora, Jamshedpur, and T-shirts were purchased from Prakash Sharma of Jamshedpur. The T-shirt shown was from Kudu Fabrics, Ludhiana.
Preliminary investigation revealed that in the year 2016-17, Lala Enterprises neither bought nor sold a single toffee, but as part of a conspiracy, took a cheque of Rs 35 lakh from the government and collected about Rs 4 lakh of sales tax (VAT) on it. The Commercial Tax Department has also imposed a fine of more than Rs 17 lakh on Lala Enterprise for hiding the sale of toffee.
Similarly, the purchase of T-shirts worth Rs 5 crore was shown through the local agent of Kudu Fabrics, Ludhiana, Prakash Sharma, resident of Kadma, Jamshedpur. The Commercial Tax Department did not have information about whether such a huge consignment of T-shirts reached Ranchi, Jamshedpur, and Dhanbad from Ludhiana by road or by rail. A road permit has also not been given for this. Despite this, the payment was completed. Now the Commercial Tax Department of Jharkhand Government has sought information in this regard from the Punjab Government.
Rs 55 lakh for singer Sunidhi Chauhan’s programme
Preliminary investigation has revealed that on November 15, 2016, a song by playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan was played for an hour amid the pre-scheduled program. In the meeting chaired by the then Chief Minister Raghubar Das on November 9, 2016, the Deputy Secretary to the Chief Minister proposed to call Sunidhi Chauhan. The expenditure on this was shown to be around Rs 44 lakh and the proposal was also accepted, but the total payment was shown to be Rs 55 lakh. Three days before this, on November 6, 2016, on the occasion of the Chhath festival, a programme of Sunidhi Chauhan’s song was also organized in Sun Temple Complex, Jamshedpur. The then Chief Minister Raghubar Das was the patron of the Sun Temple Committee at that time. The government even paid more than Rs 55 lakh for Sunidhi Chauhan’s one-hour programme on November 15. So, Saryu Roy questioned how much was paid to Sunidhi Chauhan by the Sun Temple Committee or was the government itself paid for both the programmes.
