KL Report
SRINAGAR
Reacting over the recent controversy wherein National Conference Minister Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan abused and humiliated Chief Engineer PHE AM Lankar during a review meeting, Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Lone Saturday said that attempts were being made to ‘divert’ attention and ‘create’ a perception as if the Minister was ‘fighting’ to unearth some scam.
In a statement, he said, “The reality as it exists is that the concerned minister is the author of all scams in the region. The National Conference MLAs in the area have hardly left any department untouched. PHE is a unique case.”
“I personally don’t know the Chief Engineer and have never met him (Chief Engineer) or talked to him. But by all accounts he (Chief Engineer) seems to be a man of impeccable integrity. The minister in question ensured that three Executive Engineers were transferred in a space of two years,” Lone added.
The PC chief said that when the police almost raided the PHE department and found gross irregularities, surprisingly the investigating officer was transferred and no FIR was lodged.
He said though there are gross irregularities in the works of the department as funds have been released for non-existent schemes, “ironically all the beneficiaries are the local office bearers of the ruling National Conference.”
“If the government has the will, there is enough documentary evidence to nail the culprits. There is the audacious case of cheques from the department having been issued to different persons and from those accounts all the money was transferred to one single account, who is a close relative of the concerned minister,” Lone said.
He appealed to the Crime Branch to talk to all the concerned stakeholders of the area and “we volunteer our services to identify the irregularities and the persons involved.”
“Let this not be a token, routine investigation but an investigation which identifies and nails the culprits. We with all the information at our command stress that the minister was batting for the culprits and not against them. The minster is the beneficiary of the scam as all the people involved are his cronies or close relatives. Some are out in the open and some transactions are of benami nature,” the PC chief added.
