Forest Minister trying to protect accused officials: Oppn

Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, Sep 30 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh Assembly Mahendra Karma today accused Forest Minister Brijmohan Agrawal of trying to protect forest department officials involved in the 'saw-mill' scam in Raipur forest circle.

In his letter to Chief Minister Raman Singh, Mr Karma has demanded verification of expenditure certificates and suspending guilty forest department officials besides registering cases of economic offence against them.

Fourteen officials were found guilty of misappropriation of Rs 3.80 crore in the name of examining saw-mill.

The Congress leader stated that the then Forest Minister Nankiram Kanwar had written a note sheet to suspend these officials after receiving chargesheet in this regard but his department was changed and Mr Agrawal became the Forest Minister.

He alleged that Mr Agrawal did not take any action in the matter and even appointed main accused Rakesh Chaturvedi as the Managing Director of tourism department, which was also under the Forest Minister.

UNI XC-PS 1549