DHBVN reinstates six officials, probe pending

Tribune News Service

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Faridabad, August 3

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has reinstated six officials, who were suspended on July 25, 2014, in connection with an alleged pillar box scam. A Chief Engineer, who is also facing the probe, has retired. The enquiry into the alleged scam is yet to be completed.

An order issued by the Under Secretary, DHBVN, today stated that “a Superintending Engineer (SE), three Executive Engineers (XEN) and two Sub-Divisional Officers (SDO) are reinstated with immediate effect without prejudice to the pending enquiry or disciplinary proceedings pending against them. Their posting orders will be issued separately”. The order comes with the approval of the state government, it added.

The Haryana Power Engineers Association, which had been opposing the suspension and charge-sheeting of the officials, has welcomed the DHBVN order. It had claimed that the suspended officials were innocent as all decisions regarding works and payment were taken at the management level and they were not involved.

The department had named as many as 57 officials, including a Chief Engineer, as accused in the scam, and seven of them were suspended. The department had handed over the probe into the alleged scam to the Vigilance Department but the enquiry report is still pending. Meanwhile, Varun Sheokand, an RTI activist who had lodged the initial complaint with the authorities concerned in the case, said the department decision to reinstate the suspended officials was wrong as the Chief Minister’s Office had recommended lodging of an FIR against them.

These officials were named in the chargesheet filed a few months ago. The All Haryana Power Corporations Worker Union had alleged that the department suffered a loss of Rs 45 crore as the material purchased for the project was not used for the last two years and had gone waste. The initial probe had found irregularities in the installation of pillar boxes in the circle. It was alleged that around 70 per cent of the project cost of Rs 130 crore was released even before the material could be procured or work could be started.

Ravi Thukral, a spokesperson for the DHBVN, said the seven officials had been reinstate though the probe in the matter was still continuing.