SIT set up to probe multi-crore scam in Valmiki corporation
The Hindu
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.
The other members of the SIT are IPS officers Shivaprakash Devaraju (DCP, South traffic division, Bengaluru), Hariram Shankar (Superintendent of Police- Intelligence), and Raghavendra K. Hegde (Superintendent of Police, CID, Bengaluru).
P. Chandrashekaran, 48, working as accounts superintendent at the corporation’s office in Bengaluru, ended his life at his residence in Shivamogga on Sunday, alleging the role of senior officers in the diversion of the corporation’s funds.
The BJP has been demanding the resignation of Minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare B. Nagendra, stating that death note also implicated him.
With regard to the death of the employee of the corporation, the order said criminal cases had been registered at Vinoba Nagar police station in Shivamogga and the High Grounds police station in Benglauru. The SIT would handle both criminal cases and probe the alleged diversion of funds from the corporation, the order said.
Earlier, the government had asked the CID to conduct the probe into the death of the corporation employee and the alleged financial irregularities there.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar are believed to have briefed the party high command on the alleged diversion of funds from the corporation.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.