SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 14: A couple of days back BJP MP Nishikant Dubey tweeted that the startling revelations made by Jharkhand IAS officer Pooja Singhal would even beat the “Gang of Wasseypur’. “This gang of officials is fleecing the State in connivance with the power brokers. One of the officers of this gang owns properties worth Rs 500 crore to Rs 2000 crore,” he said.
“What Dubey said was not wrong,” said a senior officer. “Corruption which had been a driving force since Jharkhand was created, has touched a new high under the current regime,” he said.
This group of officers is said to throw lavish parties, Earlier, they used to hold parties every fortnight. Now, they began throwing lavish parties almost every alternate day. An IPS officer recalled how eagerly the officers would wait for an invitation from Pooja Singhal to join her expensive party where high-quality liquor flowed like water.
Notably, a PIL has been filed in the Jharkhand High Court seeking a CBI probe in the assets of half a dozen senior IAS officers.
The reason behind this burgeoning problem is said to be the State government’s inaction against corrupt officers over the years which emboldened them to indulge in minting money with impunity. “If you count the ED action against Pooja Singhal an isolated case, there are a huge number of IAS and IPS officers who minted money and went scot-free,” he said.
For example, a former chief secretary owns a huge multi-storied building on the housing colony land, and yet nothing was done. Everybody knows that former DGP D K Pandey built his house on government land forging documents and yet the government could not do anything so far. The proceedings against Pandey’s wife are said to have been stayed by the Jharkhand High Court. Former Chief Secretary A K Basu had been convicted in the coal scam in 2017.
A serving IAS officer is said to be owning a seven-storied commercial building in Ranchi. A former Chief Secretary is said to have invested a huge sum in establishing a film studio in Mumbai. Pooja Singhal, who is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate, is said to have invested her illegally earned wealth in establishing Pulse Hospital. The list is endless.
“Earlier, the corrupt officers would invest in properties outside the State. Now, there are emboldened enough to own properties in Jharkhand also,” said an officer.
And the inaction against the tainted officers who faced corruption charges set an example for the junior ones. They are seen as a role model for the junior officers who too think that nothing would happen to them if they acquire wealth illegally and lead a comfortable life.
In the case of Pooja Singhal too, the ED took action almost a decade after she allegedly committed the scam in the implementation of the rural job scheme in Khunti. After Khunti, she is accused of having siphoned money in Chatra and committed serious irregularities in transferring land for coal mining of Kathautia mines to a private company in Palamu.
Incidentally, she was given a clean chit in departmental proceedings in the MNREGA scams when Rajbala Verma was chief secretary. Verma strongly defended her in the Supreme Court where a PIL has been filed to get justice for the raiyats and a probe into transferring 82 acres of the forest land for coal mining in Palamu, That too, when the then Divisional Commissioner N K Mishra, at the instance of the State Government, had sent a probe report listing her serious bunglings in clear words.
“The continuous inaction and support of the senior officers emboldened her to indulge in bigger corrupt practices. Had she been punished in 2010, she would not have moved further,” said an officer.
No wonder, a handful of IAS officers who have maintained honesty and integrity are upset. “The action against Pooja Singhal has maligned the whole fraternity. There is a stoic silence in the bureaucratic circle. We don’t even discuss it openly,” said one of them.
But how could they create so much wealth? Earlier, the bureaucrats would compete to get posted in such departments which were empowered to grant licences and mining leases. There was a poor record of expenditures in departments like road construction, health and the rural development departments etc.
But of late, the pattern has changed. In the now-familiar pattern, both politicians and bureaucrats are interested in seeing that available government funds, particularly in the infrastructure departments are largely spent and earn the money directly in this process.
For example, the allocation for the road construction department was increased heavily when a controversial IAS officer was its secretary. This IAS officer would also get allocated a lion’s share of the non-utilized funds surrendered at the end of the financial year, said an officer.
According to a building construction department official, now the deal with the contractor is done at the time of the budget allocation only and a project gets over-estimated funds to get a hefty sum as commission. Though contractors and power brokers influenced the decisions in every government, they are now running the show for all practical purposes, he added.
No wonder, Anil Swarup, a retired secretary, the government of India, in an article, carried by The Print, had once said that bureaucratic structure and civil servants partly contributed to the mess in Jharkhand. When the state was created, Bihar’s bureaucracy was already reeling under the aftermath of the fodder scam. The best of the civil servants like RS Sharma and Rajiv Gauba chose to move to the Centre after their brief stints as chief secretary in the new state, he added.
He said that a large number of officers in the state, both at the headquarters as well in the districts, are committed and extremely competent.
“However, Jharkhand is known as laggard because of a few officers who are inefficient or indecisive or indifferent or arrogant or dishonest or a combination of all these. The state leadership will have to scout for a new band of RS Sharmas, Rajiv Gaubas… to bring about a decisive turnaround—and revive its fortunes,” he said.
