RANCHI: Reacting to illegal withdrawals from state treasuries in Jharkhand, Finance Minister Radhakrishna Kishore has announced that all 33 treasuries across the state’s 24 districts will undergo a detailed audit covering the period since Jharkhand’s formation.
Speaking to the media in Garhwa on Monday, he said strict action would be taken against those found guilty and the embezzled funds would be recovered.
The minister said that after irregularities surfaced in the Hazaribagh and Bokaro treasuries, Chief Minister Hemant Soren constituted a high-level probe team led by a senior IAS officer, with a senior official from the Accountant General’s office as a member. The team will conduct a comprehensive investigation into all aspects of the case.
Kishore added that the irregularities had been occurring for years but have only recently come to light, prompting the government to order a complete audit of all treasury transactions from the state’s inception.
According to the finance minister, under the leadership of Hemant Soren, the government has been consistently acting against corruption. He said instances of illegal withdrawals, which had been continuing for years, have been detected during the tenure of the present administration.
Meanwhile, on Monday, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Jharkhand High Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged illegal withdrawals. The petitioner, Daniel Danish, has levelled serious allegations against senior police officials, accusing them of abetting corruption and engaging in collusion.
He has demanded a thorough investigation into fraudulent withdrawals made across districts under the pretext of paying travel allowance (TA), dearness allowance (DA) and other claims. He also urged the Jharkhand Police to scrutinise TA and DA claims of bodyguards and staff allegedly drawing allowances by falsely claiming postings away from headquarters.
The petitioner further alleged that one of the accused, Kaushal Pandey, had received “Certificates of Commendable Service” from several IPS officers.
During the investigation, it was also revealed that the arrested constables, Shambhu Kumar, Rajneesh Singh and Dhirendra Singh, accused of fraudulent salary withdrawals, had been handling accounting work at the Hazaribagh Superintendent of Police’s office for around 10 years, in violation of police regulations.
Following this, efforts have been intensified to identify the officials responsible for assigning these constables to the Accounts Section. According to the police manual, accounting duties are to be handled by the Head Clerk and the Accountant.