Shimla, May 14, 2012
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Having come under the scanner of investigating agencies for doling out favours to influential persons, Jaypee Associates Ltd (JAL) has been asked to furnish details of wards of bureaucrats who have been given jobs in the company and admission in its IT university at Vaknaghat.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has shot off a letter to the company seeking details of the wards of IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Services (IFS) officers who have got jobs in any of the companies owned by JAL not just in Himachal but even in other places outside the state. The company has also been asked to provide complete details of bureaucrats or even middle-rung officers who had joined the company either after retirement or after seeking retirement.
The action of the Vigilance Bureau comes in the wake of directives of the HC to probe the role of officials who could have given undue favours to the company in lieu of some indirect benefits. The company has also been asked to furnish complete details of bureaucrats who enjoyed its hospitality by putting up in its guest houses on being transferred here for months together.
The HC has constituted a special investigation team headed by KC Sadyal, Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP), Vigilance, to look into all aspects of the Baghera cement plant set up by JAL.
It is common knowledge that some officers have joined the Jaypee Group after retirement while some even quit their government job for a more cushy and lucrative job in the big corporate house, which has made a meteoric rise in the hill state by venturing into the cement, hydro-power, road construction and education sectors.
Sources in the Jaypee University of Information Technology at Vaknaghat confirmed that the Vigilance Bureau had sought details of admissions given to children or relatives of any of the officers who could have given benefit to the company. “The Vigilance Bureau has sought details of the admissions given to wards, family members or relatives of any of the senior officers in the university,” the sources said.
The bureau has sought the details of the course, year, certificates, merit and the money charged for admission by the Jaypee University of IT from students related to senior bureaucrats. It is felt that the company may have given benefit to certain people by facilitating admission of their wards in its university.
What it wants
- Vigilance seeks the details of admissions sought by wards of IAS, IPS and IFS officers in the Jaypee University of IT, Vaknaghat
- It has also sought the details of bureaucrats or their relatives who have joined the company
- The details of officers who have enjoyed the company’s hospitality by staying in its guest houses for long durations have also been
sought