Former Forest minister of Uttarakhand son’s Doon Institute raided by vigilant sleuths in Dehradun. Dr. Harak Singh Rawat reaches the Institute. Raids related to Corbett scam!

The Doon Institute of Medical Sciences premises situated at Shankarpur in Dehradun and the Petrol Pump of the son of Dr. Harak Singh Rawat at Chidderwala have been searched today by the vigilance department sleuths of Uttarakhand in a raid. Dr. Rawat reached the venue along with his daughter in law Anukriti Gusain on receiving the information about the raids. These raids were conducted by vigilance sleuths after the chief minister issued orders for the same. The Congress leader and former cabinet forest minister during the tenure of Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Dr. Harak Singh Rawat’s name had appeared in connection with a huge scam allegedly worth Rs 70 crores known as Corbett Scam against which a social activist and an advocate Gaurav Bansal has filed a petition in Uttarakhand High Court demanding an impartial CBI probe, that has resulted in the loss of several crores of Rupees to public exchequer. This scam allegedly pertains to the Corbett Tiger reserve, Uttarakhand during the tenure of the then forest minister Dr. Harak Singh Rawat under the chief ministership of Trivendra Singh Rawat in which as per the NDTV report right from the minister to bureaucrats, to the lower staff and officers of forest department and Jim Corbett tiger reserve etc were allegedly involved. The state’s principal accountant general has in its report found that in various projects there had been irregularities worth Rs 78 crores out of which 17 crore rupees were allocated to Corbett tiger reserve, kaalagar tiger reserve and Lansdown forest division against established rules and norms. In a thirty page report which mentions about various irregularities the concerned minister has given permission to start work on the Pakhro Tiger Safari project arbitrarily despite the Central Zoo Authority not giving any official permission till 2021 to do so. After giving the permission illegally on Tiger Baada number one and on many other parts of tiger safari including cutting of several fully grown up trees a payment of Rupees 80 lakhs were also made to private contractors. For tiger Baada number one the sanction of Rs 2.53 crores was accorded. Not only this but the director of the Corbet Park has given contracts of larger amount above ten lakhs to private contractors for which he wasn’t officially entitled. According to report there was no official agreement signed with the contractors and they were awarded contracts ( work orders) without any security deposits. In sanctioning the contracts more than 80 lakh rupees were illegally disbursed said the report. There were clear cut official condition that the work of more than Rs ten lakhs should have been got executed by government contractors or government building departments but all norms were thrown to winds. Majority of the works of Pakhro Tiger Safari project were done by the private contractors reveal the report. Not only this but two generators worth Rs 15.40 lakhs, were bought on forest budget and one of the generator was fitted in the forest minister Dr. Rawat’s son’s Doon university campus. The second generator was fitted in the Meerawati filling station probably in the name of the Minister of his son etc. This is tip of an iceberg, God knows how much more irregularities have been committed only impartial CBI probe can bring the reality to the fore said the petitioner Mr. Bansal who appealed to the chief minister and Uttarakhand government to seriously go into the depth of this irregularity and punish the guilty at the earliest. It may be recalled that Dr. Harak Singh Rawat had joined Congress in the year 2021, January. He was appointed as a coordinator by Congress high command for Rajasthan Assembly elections recently by the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge. This case may increases the troubles of Dr. Rawat and make his position cumbersome, politically and legally.