Corruption in tribal department: HC summons principal secy

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday rapped Manisha Verma, the principal secretary of the tribal development department, for failing to initiate necessary departmental action and criminal prosecution against certain officials of the department and contractors, who were indicted by an inquiry committee in 2017 for misappropriating funds worth hundreds of crores.

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A bench of justices SC Dharmadhikari and RI Chagla was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Nashik resident and others, complaining that although various schemes were introduced by the state and the Centre for welfare of the tribal population, the real beneficiaries never got the funds, and huge amounts were siphoned by department officials. The court has asked Verma to remain present in court on January 17 and explain the delay in taking action against the accused.

The bench issued the directive after noticing that Verma had blamed the police for the delay in criminal prosecutions. The judges said that being the principal secretary of the department, Verma could have easily walked into the office of the additional chief secretary (home), and sought his intervention.

The PIL, filed by Bahiram Motiram, highlighted several instances of corruption and pointed out that although the department had spent ₹10.94 crore to purchase liquid protein for malnourished tribal children, an inquiry later revealed that it was not supplied and that the protein packs had expired.

A state-appointed committee submitted its inquiry report in March 2017, and made specific recommendations for departmental and criminal action.

Earlier, the petitioner’s lawyer, advocate Rajendra Raghuvanshi pointed out that in many cases, criminal proceedings were not initiated as recommended and in the few cases registered, charge sheets were not filed.