The file disappeared two years ago after the recommendation of a SIT probe into the scam
Thursday, 03 AUGUST 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
In a shocking disclosure which puts up a question mark over the functioning of the State secretariat, the original file of the seed sale and tags scam in the State seeds and organic certification agency, Uttarakhand is missing from the State secretariat. The file is said to be missing from the office of the then additional secretary, Ram Vilas Yadav who is now in jail in a disproportionate assets case. The information about the missing file came to the fore during a hearing of a Right to Information (RTE) plea in the court of state information commissioner (SIC) Yogesh Bhatt. Interestingly, the state administration had recommended that the seed scam should be either investigated by a special agency or the Police should constitute a SIT in the matter.
Appellant Harishankar Pandey had demanded a copy of the original file of the seed sales and tag scam under the RTI. In response to the information sought, the public information officer/ Section officer (PIO/ SO) of the agriculture welfare department- section II informed that the said file has been missing since August 14, 2020. On this date the file was sent to the office of the then additional secretary of the department and thereafter the whereabouts of the file are not known as per the PIO. When the appellant filed the second appeal in the case, the section officer registered a FIR in the case of the missing file. In the hearing, Pandey claimed that since the case concerns a mega scam, the department has deliberately misplaced the file. He also placed an office memo signed by additional secretary Yadav on August 14, 2022 before the SIC. In the memo, the investigation officer and the then additional secretary agriculture Ashish Srivastava in his report dated October 10, 2017 said that major irregularities occurred in the sale of seeds. On this report a comprehensive inquiry headed by Kumaon commissioner was ordered on January 9, 2018. The Kumaon commissioner in his report submitted on March 18, 2018 said that mere departmental inquiry and document verification is not enough to get the truth out in the case and recommended that an agency capable of doing criminal investigation should investigate the case. It recommended investigation by a special agency or SIT in the case. The State administration removed the director of the agency in December 2018 so that the investigation was not affected.
In his order, the SIC Yogesh Bhatt passed strict strictures on the functioning of the State secretariat and said that it appears that the matter could never have come into the light had a RTI application not been filed in the case. He also sounded exasperated over the fact that the file of the case in which a SIT investigation was recommended is missing for the last two years. Bhatt said that the act of registering FIR by the PIO in the case when the matter came for second appeal also raises question mark on the functioning of the system. The SIC set September 25 as the date of next hearing and directed the PIO to produce the original register in which movement of files is maintained.
