Ranchi, May 11 (IANS). Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jharkhand state president and Rajya Sabha MP Aditya Sahu has demanded a CBI inquiry into the treasury scam exposed in the state. In this regard, he claimed in a letter written to Chief Minister Hemant Soren that this treasury scam of Jharkhand seems to be more widespread and serious than the famous animal husbandry scam of the then united Bihar.
He alleged that the current investigation process appears to be mere gratification and ‘eyewash’. In such a situation, the investigation of the entire case needs to be immediately handed over to CBI. The BJP State President has made a sharp allegation in the letter that the protection of the system and the people at the top of power is involved in carrying out this illegal withdrawal of crores of rupees.
He said that this cannot be the work of only a few small employees or Home Guard jawans but the government treasury was looted through a well-planned nexus. Questioning the government’s intentions, Sahu said that a month has passed since the scam came to light but the action taken so far only raises doubts.
He has demanded from the Chief Minister that the State Government should issue a white paper, in which it would be clear as to which amount of illegal withdrawal has taken place from which districts and what specific irregularities have been identified by the Accountant General. Putting five questions before the Chief Minister, Sahu has asked that when illegal withdrawal of crores of rupees took place in districts like Ranchi, Chaibasa and Palamu, then why the SIT investigation of CID has been limited only to Bokaro and Hazaribagh.
He also raised questions on the security of the e-Kuber portal used for digital transactions and asked why departmental officials and Withdrawal and Disbursement Officers (DDOs) were not aware of the tampering in the master data base. The letter has also raised questions as to how effective the system of regular inspection and audit under the Treasury Code has been in the last six years.
Sahu said that the same posts which were responsible for financial monitoring are under suspicion today. The BJP President has said that the money belongs to the people of the state and the government cannot escape its responsibility merely by citing investigation. He stressed that this scam is a deep stain on the image of the state of Jharkhand and without a CBI investigation it does not seem possible to expose the real culprits.
–IANS
SNC/PM