Turmoil in Chhattisgarh Assembly over saw mill scam

CM said that as per directives of state forest department, probe committee was constituted into the scam on April 13, 2005

Chhattisgarh Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes over the issue of a "saw mill scam", when Opposition Congress members accused the state government of shielding errant Indian Forest Service officials involved in the scam.

Raising the issue during Question Hour, Congress MLA Bhaiyaram Sinha sought to know when exactly was the probe into the saw mill scam that was unearthed in 2004-05 ordered, as well as the names of guilty officials.

In his reply, Chief Minister Raman Singh said that as per the directives of the state forest department, the probe committee was constituted into the scam on April 13, 2005 and action was taken against guilty officials.

Those officials who were indicted in the report includes the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forest R C Sharma, then Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF - Finance/ Budget) Dhirendra Sharma, then CCF (Finance/ Budget) Anup Bhalla, then CCF (Finance/ Budget) J K Upadhyay and then Conservator of Forest (Raipur Circle) Rakesh Chaturvedi.

Names of then Division Forest Officer (DFO of Dhamtari) V Srinivas Rao, then DFO (Udanti) Hemant Pandey, then DFO (Mahasamund) SSD Badgaiyya, then DFO (East Raipur) Amarnath Prasad, then Sub- Divisional Forest Officer (Raipur) R K Sood and then Forest Ranger and flying squad in-charge of Raipur circle R K Pandit also figure in the report, the Chief Minister said.

Of these, cases against R C Sharma, Dhirendra Sharma, Anup Bhalla and J K Upadhayay have been disposed of after considering their reply to show cause notices, he said.

An amount of Rs 29,66,340 was recovered from R K Pandit in this connection and his two salary increments were withheld, he said.