------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED, The time is come for the people of Goa to ORGANISE not AGONISE !! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN protests against corruption at KVIC office ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Volunteers of GOACAN today held a protest demonstration in the city to demand a thorough inquiry into the affairs of the Goa State Office of Khadi and Village Industries Commission and the immediate termination of the Dy. Director S.K.Kajal who has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Holding placards and shouting slogans the consumer forum activists highlighted their demand that S.K.Kajal should not be allowed to resume duty at the KVIC office, a full fledged inquiry into the affairs of the KVIC office in Goa, a thorough investigation into the expenditure incurred by KVIC on various exhibitions and the immediate release of the margin money to beneficiaries of the Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) It may be recalled that the Central Bureau of Investigation sleuths in Goa caught red-handed S K Kajal, the state Dy .Director of Khadi and Village Industries Commission and Manager of Khadi Gramudyog Bhavan, for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 45,000. Mr Kajal demanded the amount from the contractor, who had carried out repair and interior works of the Khadi Gramudyog Bhavan in the city, for releasing his balance amount of Rs 75,600 for the works carried out by the contractor. Following the demand for bribe, the contractor had approached the CBI and a trap was laid to nab the corrupt official of this central government agency. The KVIC official was arrested in a city hotel while money exchanged hands, as Mr Kajal agreed to accept Rs 20,000 in cash and a bearer cheque of Rs 25,000. GOACAN as part of its Drive Against Bribes through the use of the Right To Information Act 2005 had received a complaint from Mr. Epifanio Fernandes a consumer from Tivim and a beneficiary of REGP that Mr.Kajal was delaying the release of the margin money of over Rs. 2 lakh by giving lame excuses from March 2006. Moreover attempts to get information from the KVIC office in Panaji were resisted. In the month of August GOACAN volunteers met S.K.Kajal and inquired about the Tivim case and were told that a special Inspection team has to come from Mumbai to verify the project under REGP and only then will the margin money be released. He also sought to blame the nationalised banks for the delay in the inspection. After GOACAN volunteers collected information about the KVIC procedures from various sources, it became evident that S.K.Kajal's modus operandi was to delay the release of the margin money thereby causing hardship to the benficiary who would eventually part with some amount of the margin money to the official. GOACAN volunteers also inspected the exhibitions organised in Panjim, Vasco and Margao by the KVIC Goa Office and found that undue publicity was being given through expensive advertisements while the organisation of the exhibitions did not match the standards and certain stalls were found to be violative of the provisions of Consumer Protection Act 1986 as well as the Packaged Commodities Rules. When confronted S.K.Kajal refused to accept these facts nor provide the mandatory suggestion cum complaint book at these exhibitions. In view of the decision to suspend S.K.Kajal as Dy. Director KVIC State Office after being remanded to four days CBI custody and the appointment of a new Dy. Director from the Ranchi office of the KVIC, GOACAN has decided to pursue the matter with KVIC Head Office as well as send a detailed representation to the nationalised banks involved in the REGP Margin Money Scheme with the copies to the Chief Secretary Mr. J. P. Singh and Mr. S.C. Jamir Governor of Goa. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ----------------------------------------------------------------------- promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
