EOW yet to receive complaint regarding plantation drive
| Date :05-Nov-2019 |
By Rajan Raikwar :
A hurricane came into politics some days back when Forest Minister Umang Singhar claimed that massive irregularities have taken place in plantation drive carried out alongside of Narmada river in a single day during previous BJP regime. He said that along with other departments, Forest Department also took part in the drive. In the investigation done at his own level, he stumbled on various alleged irregularities in plantation work done by his own department and hence he is going to hand over case to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
Ironically, EOW has so far not received any kind of official complaint regarding the issue. Highly placed sources in the EOW told ‘The Hitavada’ that hitherto no complaint has arrived till the investigating agency regarding the plantation drive issue pertaining to the period of erstwhile BJP regime. ‘The Hitavada’ tried to contact Forest Minister Umang Singhar over the issue but he could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. Meanwhile, DG of EOW Sushovan Banerjee spoke to ‘The Hitavada’ and said “So far we have not received any complaint regarding the issue,”.
When contacted by ‘The Hitavada’, BJP MP from Khajuraho, V D Sharma said that BJP had given transparent governance when it was in power. On the other hand, ruling Congress did not do nothing rather than corruption hence it sees corruption in every work of others. He said that Congress is doing shallow politics and politics of pomp show. Notably, Forest Minister Umang Singhar had stated that there are irregularities in plantation scheme of Rs 455 crore.
He even smelled something fishy in his own department as he was not getting the desired documents and information connected to the case. He accused then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and then Forest Minister did extravagant expenditure by allegedly misusing Government fund in plantation work, hence, he decided to give case to the EOW for investigation. Notably, in the single day plantation drive on July 2, 2017, more than 7 crore saplings were planted in Narmada basin and even then Shivraj government made effort to get the plantation drive entered into world record.