PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Raising a question mark on the functioning of Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam, RTI activist and advocate Vikesh Singh Negi has claimed that the department has failed to conduct audit of its accounts for many years. He alleged that the department officials were involved in financial irregularities amounting to at least Rs 2,660 crore.
Addressing a Press conference here on Saturday, Negi said based on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), he has received information under the RTI Act stating that from the year 2016 to 2024-25 (till May), a sum of Rs 2660. 27 lakh crore has been registered as irregularities in Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam. He said that the report clearly shows that for many years the corporation did not even get the audit done as per the rules. Negi said that non conduction of the audit appears to be an organised strategy to hide corruption. He said that this is a serious financial crime because public money was used without testing, verification and statutory review.
Negi claimed that no audit of the corporation occurred in the years 2017-18 and 2018-19, which is a direct violation of the law. He claimed that RRI data shows that irregularities worth Rs 92.41 crore were recorded in 2016-17, Rs 656.05 crore in 2019-20, Rs 829.90 crore in 2020-21, Rs 43.48 crore in 2021-22, Rs 96.99 crore in 2022-23, Rs 803 crore in 2023-24, and Rs 38.41 crore till May in 2024-25. He demanded that the State government should order a high-level inquiry on the issue.
