Various irregularities have been revealed through replies received from the Animal Husbandry Department under the Right To Information Act. According to People For Animals trustee Gauri Maulekhi, there are several cases of financial irregularities in the purchase of fodder/feed for goats and sheep in the financial year 2019-20 in the districts of Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh. She has written to the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and the chief secretary Om Prakash highlighting the misappropriation of government funds and causing a loss to the exchequer in the financial year 2019-20, asking for the loss to be recovered with interest from the guilty officers.
Maulekhi informed that the government approved rates of feed for goats and sheep is Rs 2,050 per quintal. The feed has to be sourced from the animal feed factory at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district. However, contrary to this, the chief executive officer of the Uttarakhand Sheep and Wool Development Board (USWDB) Dr Avinash Anand had sanctioned the purchase of fodder for different goat and sheep farms in Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh at much higher rates than that approved by the government of Uttarakhand. Such purchases were made for the sheep and goat farms in Thalkundi and Dunda in Uttarkashi district and Barapatta and Pangu in Pithoragarh district.
“The information received under the RTI Act makes it abundantly clear that not only was the feed purchased at a much higher rate than that sanctioned by the government, it was procured from a private manufacturer in Punjab. Further, lakhs of rupees were spent for its transportation, almost at five times the market asking rate. It is further highlighted that this is a brazen misuse of the funds received from the World Bank,” she pointed out.
Apart from the financial irregularities in the fodder procurement, Maulekhi has also written to the CM and chief secretary complaining about the board’s CEO purchasing an official car in 2018-19 which cost much more than the cost of the vehicle allowed for an official of his post. According to Maulekhi, a 2016 government order states that a vehicle costing maximum Rs six lakh can be purchased for an officer of the rank of deputy director/ joint director or additional director. However, the car purchased for the board’s CEO cost Rs 12,32,009 which is Rs 6,32,009 more than the Rs six lakh allowed. Stating that this is gross misuse of government funds, Maulekhi has sought an inquiry and recovery of the excess amount with interest from the officer concerned.
Sunday, 27 December 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
