Case against officials of 5 JK govt dept for alleged bungling

A case was registered today against some officials of five government departments of Jammu and Kashmir and a private firm for alleged bungling in procurement of solar home lighting systems under Rural Village Electrification (RVE) Programme.
Vigilance Organisation Kashmir (VOK) registered the case in which a cumulative loss of Rs 60.32 lakhs was caused to the state exchequer during 2009-2010, Vigilance Organisation officials said.
The case was registered against officials of department of Science and Technology, Planning and Development Department, Power Development Department (PDD), DIC Srinagar, JK Energy Development Agency (JAKEDA) and the private company.
They said the verification by the vigilance revealed that officers/officials of JKEDA, without any requirement, submitted project proposals for procurement of 12,367 SHLs for 68 remote un-electrified villages of the state under the programme to Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The proposals were approved and an amount of Rs 99,84,100 was released and transferred as 70 per cent of Central Financial Assistance to JKEDA with a condition of completion of the project till December 2009, the officials said.
"The procurement was finalised at the rate of Rs 13,993 per unit despite cheaper options available to them, thereby causing a loss for Rs 18,27,952... The said firm was not participating in the new rate contract," the officials said.
They said a cumulative loss of Rs 60.32 lakhs approximately was caused to the state exchequer by above said officials of JKEDA and others.