Aug 11: In a crackdown on the Jal Shakti Department, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today conducted simultaneous check in its offices across all 10 districts of the Jammu region and seized documents pertaining to allotment of tenders and works sanctioned in the recent past. Searches were conducted at two offices of the Jal Shakti Department in Jammu and one each in rest of the districts of the region simultaneously by the special teams constituted for the purpose by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.“There were complaints about sub standard works executed by the Department at some places. There were also reports that in some cases, works were allotted first and tenders were floated later,” sources told. They said the Anti-Corruption Bureau set up special teams of the officers after obtaining source report and other credible inputs about irregularities in the works executed by the Jal Shakti Department.“In some of the offices during surprise checks, the sleuths of Anti-Corruption Bureau seized documents pertaining to allotment of works, issuance of tenders etc,” Sources adding that documents will be scrutinized in the next one or two weeks by the Bureau teams to ascertain whether any irregularities have been committed or not. Surprise checks at all the Jal Shakti Department offices across 10 districts of Jammu region lasted seven to eight hours. However, at some of the offices, the searches continued till late this evening. The Anti-Corruption Bureau had been receiving source reports during the past quite some time about certain irregularities in the Jal Shakti Department.“The reports were studied by the officers and teams were deputed to all districts to check the record and verify the facts,” sources said. Further investigations will be conducted based on study of documents.However, a First Information Report (FIR) hasn’t yet been registered in the case and sources pointed out that study of documents will reveal whether the FIR will be registered or not.(CNS)
