Haryana officers booked for loss to state

Chandigarh - Three engineers, working for the Haryana government, have been charge-sheeted for having caused a loss running into crores of rupees to the state exchequer, a spokesman said here Monday.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has ordered that two executive engineers and a sub divisional engineer of the Public Works (Building and Roads) Department be charge-sheeted for dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming of a government officer and causing a huge loss to the state exchequer, the spokesman said.

The officers are posted at Nuh, the headquarters of the newly-created district of Mewat, 350 km from here.

Accusing one executive engineer, D.P. Mittal, of embezzlement and irregularities, the state government has said that he "was found responsible for breach of trust, mala fide intention and misuse of power.

Thus, he caused a total direct loss or embezzlement of Rs.438.36 lakh (over Rs.4.38 crore) and indirect loss or misappropriation of Rs.1755.17 lakh (over Rs.17.55 crore) to the state exchequer".

The other executive engineer, Ram Dhari, has been accused of committing lapses causing loss of crores of rupees to the state government.

The engineer had submitted wrong layout plans to the architecture department leading to a boundary wall being constructed in 41.89 acres instead of the acquired 46.55 acres for the construction of an administrative block, judicial block and circuit house at the mini-secretariat complex at Nuh. "The remaining land was not utilized due to the lapse," the spokesman said.

The lapse also led to a situation where there was not enough space to build government houses and providing a proper site for the circuit house, he said.

The SDE, R.K. Mehta, was accused of causing a loss of nearly Rs.five crore to the state exchequer.