By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 11 Jan: BJP MP and former Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi has written a letter to Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in which she has levelled corruption charges against CEO of Uttarakhand Sheep & Wool Development Board, Dr Avinash Anand.
In her letter, Gandhi has alleged that Dr Anand has misappropriated crores of rupees from the loan obtained by the Uttarakhand Government from the World Bank. Among the allegations levelled by Gandhi includes the charge that Dr Anand has brought residences in NOIDA from his disproportionate income and has also purchased luxury cars at more than Rs 13 lakhs per car. She has further alleged that Dr Anand purchased fodder for the sheep from Punjab at double the market price under the district budget plans of the Board. She further claimed that the price paid for the fodder by him was much higher than the rates prescribed by Uttarakhand Government.
Another serious charge made by her is that Dr Anand has taken a large number of veterinary officers of the state government on deputation on the Board causing many veterinary hospitals and dispensaries to shut down operations for lack of veterinarians. She further claimed that these veterinary officers on deputation had no work to do at the Uttarakhand Sheep and Wool Development Board and were drawing salaries for doing nothing.
A very serious charge she has levelled is that Dr Anand has hired services of a consultant in the Board whose remuneration was more than Rs 2.5 lakhs per month, which was higher than the salary of the state’s Chief Secretary.
She has also criticised a recent initiative called ‘Bakraw Mutton Scheme’ of the government, claiming that it has only resulted in losses for the government as a large amount of investment had been put in without any such need.
