HC asks Maha govt to list steps to disburse funds for tribals

The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra Government to file an affidavit informing what steps it proposed to take to ensure that the funds earmarked for tribal welfare were disbursed to the beneficiaries or for the purposes they had been allocated.
The direction was given by a bench headed by Justice V M Kanade, who asked the State to file an affidavit by September 3 on a PIL alleging Rs 6,000-crore scam in tribal welfare schemes formulated by the state government.
The court, on June 13, had directed the CBI to probe into the alleged Rs 6,000 crore scam in the purchase of material related to tribal development schemes in Maharashtra.

The bench had also slammed the state for not taking concrete steps to look into the serious allegations.
Observing that the allegations were not without substance and that they were "alarmed" by their "serious nature", the bench had opined that the CBI would act as the Court's Special investigating team (SIT) and conduct probe into the case.
The court had also asked the state government to conduct an independent inquiry and submit a detailed affidavit into the allegations.

The government today proposed through its lawyer that they would set up a committee of a retired high court judge and four other members to probe the allegations into the tribal scam.

However, petitioner Bahiram Motiram, a tribal from Nashik district, said he welcomed the CBI inquiry. However, as regards the state government inquiry, he urged the High Court to nominate the probe officer and not to leave this to the state.
The petitioner said that the allegations were against the concerned minister and the officials cannot judge their own wrongdoings or against the minister.
Therefore an independent person should be appointed by the court to probe the allegations, his counsel Rajendra Raghuvanshi argued.