Adarsh society scandal: Tainted bureaucrats refute impropriety charge

All the 21 bureaucrats, including 12 IAS officers, who have been served notices in the Adarsh society scandal have sent their replies to the respective departments of the state government.

Chief secretary JP Dange said that their contentions are being scrutinised.

The state government had served show cause notices to bureaucrats from administrative, foreign and police services in the first week of December and had asked them to clarify on their involvement in the scam.

The officials were closely associated with the files related to the Adarsh society proposal during its transit through various departments between 1999 and 2004.

Most of the officers reportedly acted with impropriety and misused their administrative powers.

The officials served with the notices include Ramanand Tiwari, Jairaj Phatak, Seema Vyas, IA Kundan, JM Abhyankar, Uttam Khobragade, Subhash Lala, DK Sankaran (all IAS) and some IPS officers. Most of these IAS officers have taken flats in Adarsh in the names of their sons or daughters.

In the reply forwarded to the general administration department, the officials have reportedly claimed that their sons and daughters are majors, and do not stay with them.

Their contention about the allotment of the flats is that their kin have taken the membership in their own capacity and they have not facilitated it. “The replies have the copy of the income tax returns attached claiming that the nothing was hidden from the government,” said an official.

Chief secretary JP Dange told DNA that all the bureaucrats have filed their replies, which are being scrutinised. “All the 12 IAS officials sent there replies to us, while other bureaucrats have responded to their respective departments, which have not yet forwarded them to us. The replies are under scrutiny, after which the decision about the next step will be taken,” he said.