Coimbatore: In the wake of allegations of misappropriation of funds in the implementation of tree cultivation in private land scheme, environmentalists have sought probe into other projects of the forest department.
“The department implements plantation projects all through the year. A division implements at least five projects. So, chances of misappropriation of fund are high in almost all the projects,” said Mac Mohan, an environmentalist.
Welcoming the step taken by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) sleuths, he said a thorough probe should be conducted into the allegations of misappropriation of funds and action should be taken against all the erring officials.
DVAC sleuths have registered first information report against forestry expansion officer K Sekar, retired ranger V A Murugesan, who was reappointed on contract basis, and contractor D Ganesan for allegedly preparing 12 vouchers to show that 1.7 lakh seedlings were sent to beneficiaries and planted on their land.
DVAC sleuths have recovered the vouchers and launched a probe into it. In 2014-15, forestry extension was a separate wing and it wasn’t under the forest department, a forest official said and added that the forestry extension officer was solely responsible for the project.
“There was no transparency in the project implementation,” M M Yoganathan, another environmentalist said and added that there should be a third party monitoring committee to inspect all the projects to curb malpractices.
“The DVAC should also look into other projects,” he added. In recent times, the DVAC has not initiated any investigation against the forest department officials even though several complaints were lodged against them in connection with swindling of money.
As far as plantation projects are considered, either officials focus on a particular region and swindle money allocated for the remaining regions or implementation work remains only on paper, the activists said. “While the right to information act has brought down malpractices to an extent, the system is yet to be cleansed,” they added.
Refuting all the charges, forest department officials said they were always quick to take action on complaints. “First, we conduct a preliminary investigation and if charges were found to be true, we file chargesheet against the concerned official and take appropriate action,” an official said.