Night shelter scam: As homeless died, Delhi babus grew fat

20Cr Meant For Freezing Poor’s Night Shelters Siphoned Off, Accused Shielded: Probe
New Delhi: Callousness and corruption in the Delhi government couldn’t have emerged in a more chilling manner this freezing winter.

For over 20 years, almost Rs 20 crore earmarked for building night shelters and providing other welfare assistance to the national Capital’s poor and homeless was siphoned off with impunity. And, when the scam was busted, there seems to have been an organized bid to shelter the guilty.

In an order issued during one of the coldest days here in living memory, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked the CBI to begin an investigation into the racket that has deprived the city’s poor of several night shelters. It has also recommended major penalty proceedings, including possible dismissal from service, against 28 Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) officials.

Delhi has only 150 night shelters, providing respite to just 7,500 homeless people. The city has more than three lakh homeless poor, and a heated shelter could well determine whether they get to live for another day.

When the first details of the scam emerged in September, 2010, the Delhi government’s Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) stepped in to pre-empt the CBI from taking over the case. And the ACB has been sitting on it ever since, forcing the CVC to step in.

The appalling fraud has been in the works for almost 20 years. According to sources, between 1990 and 2010 Rs 19.44 crore earmarked for the DUSIB was siphoned off. Initially, it was blamed on Purushottam Kumar, who rose through the ranks to become an assistant director.

The initial inquiry had blamed Kumar, saying he didn’t deposit cheques and cash meant for DUSIB into its account. It was also found that transactions were shown in the cash books and the account statements were prepared on the basis of cash book entries. Strangely, bank statements were never reconciled for almost two decades until September, 2010. “That raises the question if he single-handedly indulged in malpractices,” said a source who has investigated the case.

An audit done after the fraud found wrong entry in cash books along with missing entries and misappropriation of funds. During the time of the fraud, Kumar had several officials senior to him, but strangely none of them ever scrutinized the account books for reasons best known to them. “Their connivance cannot be ruled out,” the source said. Some of the senior officials were on deputation from the DDA, and others were DUSIB employees.
Courtesy:
Josy Joseph TNN
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Night shelter scam: 10 babus suspended

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday said it had asked the CBI in October, 2010, itself to investigate the large scale corruption in the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), even as it shifted blame for the fraud on the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Reacting to TOI’s report “Rs 20 crore meant for night shelters in Delhi siphoned off”, the government also claimed that it had suspended 10 officials involved in the embezzlement of funds. The TOI report had spoken about how over two decades the money earmarked for sheltering the poor and other assistance programmes was siphoned off, and when it was detected in September, 2010, there was a concerted bid to cover it up.

The report had also said that Delhi government’s Anti Corruption Branch had taken over the case, pre-empting the CBI which was getting ready in 2010 to start investigations.

The Delhi government’s statement did not explain why the CBI did not finally probe the fraud, and what happened to the investigations by its own ACB. The statement also did not explain if they have found anybody guilty and punished them for stealing money meant for night shelters.

“The Delhi government on Monday stated that it had addressed a communication to the Director, CBI, as early as 29th October, 2010, requesting to investigate a matter of embezzlement of cash detected while going through the records after taking over the Slum & JJ Department of MCD by the city government to convert it into the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB),” the statement said.

The city government claimed that DUSIB “was constituted to streamline the functioning of the activities of Slum & JJ Department under MCD as it was marred with rampant corruption and nothing moved during the period when controlled by the MCD.”

The Congress-controlled state government said the “condition of Slums & JJ colonies was becoming bad to worse and the government was flooded with large number of complaints from the residents.”

Once DUSIB was constituted, the city government “started looking into the records and decided to approach the Delhi police to seek proper investigation by an Assistant Director in connivance with other staff members.”
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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