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CRACKING DOWN ON CORRUPTION Senior power officials suspended Mumbai: A week after minister Dilip Walse Patil promised stern action against corrupt officials in the state power sector, Maharashtra Electricity Distribution Company (MEDC) has cracked the whip against several senior employees. MEDC CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey has asked the vigilance branch of the company to conduct a probe against five superintending engineers, five executive engineers and suspended a record number of 12 senior officials for malpractices in a multi-crore deal for capacitors. The issue had been raised in the legislative council earlier, and Walse Patil had assured agitated members that all the guilty engineers would be taken to task. Subsequently, based on a probe by the vigilance branch, Pandey suspended the officials and ordered an inquiry against their bosses. All the officials are from the Marathwada region and most of the engineers are from Latur, hometown of chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. A senior MEDC official said the action related to an order placed by the erstwhile Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) in 1997 with Thane-based Asian Electricals for supply of capacitors worth Rs 374 crore for installation on transformers in 14 districts. As per the agreement, the payment for these capacitors was to be made every quarter on the basis of a certificate issued by the junior engineer. The agreement provided that the certificate would be further rechecked by an executive engineer. For well over five to six years, it was a smooth affair. However, an anonymous complaint received in October 2005 pointed out that the certificates for efficient functioning of the capacitors were issued without verification. On investigation, MSEB found this was true in cases in at least six districts-Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Aurangabad, Jalna in the Marathwada region and Kolhapur in western Maharashtra. "We then asked our vigilance branch to conduct a probe into the scam. The branch fixed the responsibility on 12 engineers for dereliction of duty,'' an MEDC official said. Pandey has not only suspended the officials, but served a chargesheet on them. A union representing the engineers has lodged a protest against the suspensions, saying only junior-level officials were being targeted. But Pandey has said he will not spare senior officials including the executive engineers. URL : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA2LzEyLzE4I0FyMDA5MDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom |
