Rs one thousand crores scam in auction of Liquor Vends- our investigation-CM Naib Saini should respond.
Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal
Estimated rs one thousand crore scam in auction of liquor vends-CBI probe is needed .Our investigation has revealed startling disclosures.It has all the ingredient of a potbelly Mumbai thriller.Auctioning of liquor vends in Haryana was delayed due to threats by liquor mafia.It is believed that in districts like Gurgram ,Faridabad,Jagadhari and Panchkula estimated rs one thousand crore loss was caused to the revenue.Had bit Vigilance taken rs one thousand crore more could be added to the state exchequer.It is wondered that all the fear of gangsters was evaporated the moment rates were downed.Department is patting its back for achieving the target.But the growth which was expected was concealed.As part of damage control exercise some shifting were made.Officer connected with auction was changed and some DETC,s were shifted while some managed to retain the posting .Gurugram (East and West), Faridabad, Jagadhri, Panchkula and some other districts lost revenue of Rs 800-1000 crores. The growth that could have come and used to come every time, not only was that lost but the contracts were awarded at rates much lower than the reserve price because there were no bidders.
From a distance, this process looks so simple and straightforward that it seems wrong to point fingers at anyone. No investigating agency, be it the State Vigilance Department or the CBI, can blame anyone for this. The target has been achieved, and everything is hidden under this carpet. But no one can even guess the additional revenue that could have come and could not. The simple answer is that no one came to bid due to the threat of gangsters. As per the rules, the reserve price had to be reduced and seeing the reduced rates, the fear of the bidders suddenly ended and they bid at much lower rates, causing a huge loss to the government. The gangsters were now left with their faces down. The police captaincy of the state and the districts is patting its back that look how we have given courage to all the contractors and their family members by giving them two police bodyguards each, that suddenly all the contractors started coming to give bids (at the fallen reserve price), but this is where the game started. How long can things remain hidden from the government. When they got a whiff of something, Haryana’s Excise Collector Vijay Malik was removed overnight in the middle of the process. A DETCof Gurugram remained on his post due to his clean image, but the other DETC of Gurugram West also had to leave overnight in the middle of the process. The District Excise Deputy Commissioner of Faridabad was also removed. Some district officers saved their posts due to some other reasons. Whose investigation should be done by CBI or Vigilance Bureau, everyone was either scolding their juniors or getting scolded by their seniors everyday. So who is the culprit? An honest DETC fed up of daily reprimands had even offered to resign from his job. Due to his honest image, he was spared. So who is to blame?
The fault was of inexperience. The Collector was inexperienced, the State Commissioner had experience of Chandigarh but the Haryana contractors were far more clever. The sensitive districts could not be identified in time.
Where it was being said that no bidder came due to fear of gangsters, bids had already been placed. Gangsters themselves were the patrons of the bidders but these bids were not placed in the government way but quietly in closed rooms. And the rise that came was not only kept away from the government treasury but it was also decided that bids would be placed only when the rate decreased by several crores. The one who won the closed room bidding would bid for that area. No one else would come near. To ensure that no outsider spoils the game by mistake, informers were posted in the department who, in exchange of just five to ten thousand rupees, could immediately inform that an outsider contractor has come to the office with his papers to bid. He would be threatened or made to agree. After all, for what day have the contractors kept gangsters.
Every year some bullets are fired in the liquor business and every year some murder also takes place. But this year, by making these incidents an issue and shield, the government’s revenue of around thousand crores of rupees was embezzled and no one had any idea. Which investigation agency in the world can investigate the murder of revenue which was not generated?
No one was at fault. Somewhere the district officer was new, the state’s excise collector was new, the state’s excise commissioner was new. The post of minister was with the Chief Minister. This was his first chance too. A new post was created by keeping the post of Principal Secretary or Additional Chief Secretary vacant. This was their first chance for this post. Before all of them, the old shrewd contractors danced on the first chance. The government just kept making small changes.