Haryana forest scam: MoEF indicts politicians and senior officers

NEW DELHI: An inquiry report of the environment ministry indicted senior officers and politicians of the Haryana government for corruption and violation of laws. It also indicted the Supreme Court-appointed Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC) for going beyond its powers and infringing law, in letting the guilty off in the case. But Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh has now asked the same CEC to consult the Haryana government and decide what action it should take in the Haryana forest scam case.

The inquiry report had found embezzling of funds, violation of Supreme Court orders and environmental laws, hounding of a whistleblower and connivance at the highest level to save the guilty. It found that the CEC had let the Haryana officials off the hook by asking the state government instead to deposit a Rs 1 crore fine for destroying a wildlife sanctuary.

The laws require the guilty officials to be prosecuted and even jailed. But the inquiry found CEC had summarily decided the case on its own and not even taken it to the apex court as part of its recommendatory role. The report recommended that a CBI investigation be launched against the guilty Haryana officials and politicians and the ministry file a petition against the CEC orders with the Supreme Court to ensure that a precedent is not set.
But sources in the ministry said that Jairam Ramesh has instead referred the case to the CEC itself to decide what action it should take.

The minister had once before dithered from ordering a CBI inquiry into the wrongdoings of the Congress government in Haryana and had instead asked the state government to respond to the charges in the report. The Haryana government then sent a reply challenging the report itself and its intent. The accused Haryana minister met the Union environment minister personally and instead made charges against the whistleblower while the incumbent forest minister wrote an official letter to Ramesh along the same lines as the official reply.

Before this too, Ramesh's officials had tried to whittle down the recommendation for a CBI inquiry, instead suggesting that the state government should be asked to investigate its own senior officials and politicians which include a cabinet minister and officers in the chief minister's office.

The CEC too has failed to reply to a query under Right to Information Act for more than two years as to under what provisions of the law it let the guilty officials off and charged a fine from the state government while settling the case of the destroyed wildlife sanctuary on its own.