Gandhinagar, 5 December 2011

Two Gujarat cadre IAS officers H.N Chhiber and Rajiv Topno have been issued notice in a 10-year-old case which pertains to the multi-crore post-earthquake debris removal scam in Kutch district. Both officers were posted in Kutch in that phase. While Chhibber was the Collector, Topno was District Development Officer(DDO) during that time.

Topno is presently working in the PMO, while Chhiber was chargesheeted a day before he retired on November 30 from the post of the additional commissioner in rural development department.

As a result of the charge sheet, Chhiber will have to wait for his retirement dues till he is exonerated in the inquiry while Topno may not be promoted to secretary level along with his 1996 batch-mates.

In December 2001, the state government had issued a GR stating that debris be removed by the newly-constituted village committees comprising sarpanches, teachers and prominent persons from a village. Such committees could be formed only in villages where 50 or more houses were completely destroyed in the the quake, and for each house, Rs 1,500 was to be paid.

Surveys showed that a total of 3.7 lakh houses had collapsed and 6.5 lakh partially damaged. Removal of 109 lakh tonnes of rubble from different sites in Kutch had cost the government Rs 70 crore.

In 2003, following an investigation based on widespread anonymous complaints of fake bills, six cases under the anti-corruption act — one each in the six talukas — were registered by the ACB. Over 900 persons, including officials of the rank of deputy collector, taluka development officers, sarpanchs, teachers and two private contractors, were accused of sending fake bills for removing debris.

Further investigations revealed that at least Rs 13 crore was pocketed allegedly by bureaucrats in nexus with contractors — Premji Keshrani of Adarsh Construction Company and Chandulal Kothari of Kothari Construction — talaties, sarpanchs and school teachers, who were authorised to sign tractor bills for debris removal.

The ACB has till date arrested nearly 180 persons. Last month, seven teachers from the same taluka and six technical staffers then working with the Anjar nagarpalika were arrested.