Ranchi: Head of Minister of Hemant Soren has provided a nod to sue Jhar officials involved in the Skam blankets excavated by Comtrollers and General Auditors (CAG) in India in his report published in December 2018.
The minister’s office until week was issued in this case with the Implementing Director Jharcraft.
The order asked the executive director to start the disciplinary action and punishment for officials, which was found guilty of financial violations by CAG and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
“In the case of deviation in the purchase of blankets by Jharcraft, CM has given its approval to obtain a final status report from ACB and started disciplinary actions and punishment,” the command rang.
Skam blankets took place in 2017-18 when the Government of Raghubar Das has decided to buy 10 Lakh blankets from Jharcraft, state-owned units under the Industrial Department, for distribution between winter.
In 2016-17, Jharcraft has provided two Lakh blankets to the Ministry of Manpower.
In its audit journey, CAG found irregularities in Jharcraft’s claims and recommended an investigation of alertness.
The state government under Hemant Soren submitted an investigation against ACB in January 2020.
While ordering with Jharcraft, the government later said the blankets intended for distribution would be woven by the Weaver and Mandal Sakhi committee, thus eliminating the required tender process.
Obtaining work orders, Jharcraft, signed an agreement with Panipat Company (Haryana) for the procurement of woolen yarn to be woven by local craftsmen.
The blanket should be sent back to Panipat for the final retouch.
Jharcraft has claimed to have bought 19.93 lakh kg of wool yarn, which was brought to Jharkhand of 144 trucks.
It also claimed that the truck made 320 rounds of round trip to transport the thread and get a repaired blanket.
The state government has paid Rs 14 Crore to Jharcraft for that purpose.
However, when CAG checked the details of the truck from the Toll Plaza, found that at least 318 trips were wrong and around 18.81 KG woolen yarn was never taken to Jharkhand.
The audit body also said the claims of the three lakh blankets woven by one sakhi mandal in one day was also unrealistic.
After the CAG report, the BJP government has directed Jharcraft to conduct an internal investigation, based on where he submitted a detailed report on February 23, 2018.
In the report, officials from the National Handloom Development Corporation (NHD), those who supply threads, transporter, deputy general managers Jharcraft, Nasim Akhtar, Jharcraft Ashok Thakur’s Financial Officer, and Chief Executive Officer, Jharkcraft, Renu Gopinath Pannikar is demanded by deviations and performances.
Immediately after, the committee was formed at the district level to investigate this problem but there was no concrete.
After ruling, the government Soren submitted this problem to ACB for a comprehensive investigation and now allows Jharcraft to take action against officials.