Pankaj Nath, Assam, June 16:
On the basis of information received and RTI documents in the “Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society (APFBC)” project run with French grant funds under the Forest Department of the Government of Assam, there have been serious allegations of illegal allocations and misappropriation of funds at many places. It has been reported that in 2021, contracts for plantation and face-fencing worth about Rs 36 crore were awarded in Tezpur, about Rs 12 crore in Shilcher, about Rs 16 crore in Bongaigaon, about Rs 22 crore in Jorhat, about Rs 16 crore in Kokrajhar and about Rs 34 crore in Halflong districts. The contractors include M/s Badri Rai & Company (Duliajaan), M/s Gramin Vikas Trust (Uttar Pradesh) and M/s Sarada Project Limited (Hyderabad). The total contract value of these contracts was in crores and many first installments were released to the contractors, even though at that time there was no clear rules for direct plantation by any contractor in the Forest Department. According to information received from RTI, the project director of APFBC society, KSPV Pawan Kumar, IFS, is accused of illegally grabbing a large part of public money in connivance with his preferred contractors. The report said that the first instalments were released to the contractors only after they agreed to the project director’s “agreement”. After journalists reported the work of Badri Ray & Company, this contractor filed a complaint and was prosecuted under Complaint No. 1964/2022. The complaint also alleged that the reporter stole the fencing material. During the hearing of the case, the court acquitted the reporter due to the lack of any concrete evidence of the contractor; The court acquitted the reporter on 06/02/2026. During the hearing, the prosecutor did not appear for several days and could not provide any conclusive evidence. Also, in another serious episode, approval was given to purchase 129 vehicles on 05/04/2023 from the funds of APFBC. RTI and investigation documents show that the contract for the purchase of these vehicles was made from a Kerala-based company, S.B.L. Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd., on the basis of suspicious documents worth about ₹10.94 crore. In this procurement also, the investigation is currently going on and there is a demand for an immediate investigation into the irregularities related to the procurement. Amid these allegations, Pawan Kumar, IFS is currently seen filing an appeal in the Central Administrative Tribunal for the post of PCCF (Wildlife). Local RTI activist Dilip Nath has requested Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma not to be appointed to the post of PCCF of the Wildlife Department in any way unless the ongoing investigation and transparency on it is ensured. There is a growing demand for a free, fair and expeditious investigation into the matter so that there is a clear investigation into the misuse of foreign funds and possible misappropriation of public funds.
