In the much talked about Jal Jeevan Mission scam in Rajasthan, the investigating agencies have taken major action and presented a detailed charge sheet against 10 accused in the court. This case is related to the alleged corruption of about Rs 960 crore, which has raised serious questions on the government tender process and departmental functioning. According to the investigation, a total of 16,000 page charge sheet has been prepared against the accused, which was transported by the special team in 54 red bundles in two tempo travelers from Jhalana headquarters in Jaipur to the ACB court. This massive documentary process has made the seriousness of the matter even more clear.
The ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau Rajasthan), which is investigating this entire matter, has made many shocking revelations in its report. However, at present the charge sheet has not been presented against Subodh Aggarwal, another accused involved in this case, on which further investigation is going on.
The charge sheet states that two prominent firms—Mahesh Mittal, proprietor of M/s Shree Ganpati Tubewell Company, and Padmachand Jain, proprietor of M/s Shree Shyam Tubewell Company—allegedly prepared fake certificates of IRCON International Limited. After this, on the basis of these documents, tenders were obtained on a large scale in collusion with the top officials of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). The investigating agencies allege that through this entire network, irregularities were made in tenders worth about Rs 960 crore and government funds were misused on a large scale. This has also affected the state’s water supply schemes and development works.
ACB says that not only fake documents were used in this scam, but there are also indications of collusion at the administrative level. At present, the investigating agency is investigating all the aspects in depth and it is expected that more names will be revealed. This case is considered to be one of the biggest alleged corruption cases of the state, which will now be heard further in the court.
