Vigilance
probing multi-crore e-ticket scam in Gulmarg Gandola
Picked up by Talat Parvez Rohella for e-ticket contract, Afford Infocom is alleged to have swindled crores in truck with officials
Ahmad Ali Fayyaz
________
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Enjoying high political and bureaucratic clout during Omar Abdullah’s NC-Congress coalition, tainted KAS officer Talat Parvez has managed his return to the bureaucratic mainstream and appointment as Director of Floriculture on October 19th despite the fact that the Departmental Inquiries pointed out large scale irregularities and brazen violation of laws and rules during his tenure as Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC) and Director of Tourism Kashmir.
Prior to his appointment as Director Tourism Kashmir in May 2012, Rohella functioned as MD JKCCC. Even after his transfer, he retained JKCCC as additional charge. In January 2015, Governor's administration transferred and appointed him as DC Baramulla. However, in view of serious charges and allegations of corruption and misuse of official position, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government attached him to General Administration Department (GAD) in its first administrative reshuffle in March 2015.
On one hand, Government served a memo of charges on Rohella and on May 8th and on July 24th appointed Commissioner-Secretary Agriculture Mohammad Ashraf Bukhari as Inquiry Officer. On the other hand, same government picked up Rohella for induction into IAS without clearance from Vigilance and without regard to the Inquiry going on against him. The file of recommendation containing Rohella’s name was secretly carried on former Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday’s direction by Additional Secretary GAD Khalid Majeed by hand in the morning flight one day in the middle of July when memo of charges had been served and Bukhari was being appointed as Inquiry Officer.
Mr Majeed delivered the file at Union Public Service Commission in New Delhi and returned same day by the afternoon flight.
Again, on one hand an internal inquiry found large scale fraudulent cobduct in allotment of works without tenders to the tune of Rs 15 crore in JKCCC during Rohella’s tenure besides unauthirised engagement of around 80 casual labourers, followed by e-ticket scam worth crores. On the other hand, post of Director Floriculture was reserved for the same officer for three months. Finally, even after Mr Khanday quit in protest, and after the allegations against Rohella died down due to other administrative halos, he was brought back and appointed Director Floriculture. If well placed sources are to be believed, in the second phase of his rehabilitation, he is being given a far more important posting.
Reports that a former Chief Minister advocated Rohella’s reinstatement could not be confirmed from independent sources. However, sources insisted that a senior PDP leader and Cabinet Minister came to the rescue of three blue eyed officers when they were about to be terminated as deadwood in the beginning of the PDP-BJP government. Rohella, sources said, was one among them.
While many of the real deadwood and known liabilities managed to get themselves off the hook, those terminated included a junior official who had allegedly accepted Rs 500 bribe money and an AEE of PDD who landed in Vigilance net over a transformer platform. They also included an officer who had been attending his young daughter suffering from leukemia (blood cancer) in hospital for two years. His leave was sanctioned by GAD that terminated his services immediately after inducting him in KAS and promoting him as Additional Secretary after obtaining vigilance clearance.
As MD JKCCC, Rohella is facing charges of unauthorised allotment of works to handpicked contractors to the tune of Rs 15 crore without calling tenders besides unauthorised engagement of nearly 80 people as casual labourers, to be subsequently absorbed against Class 4th vacancies. He also allotted e-ticket contract to M/S Afford Infocom who were recently caught in the embezzlement of tickets for unknown amount of money. On a comprehensive complaint, State Vigilance Organisation has now completed secretly Preliminary Verification and many of the charges have been found correct. A criminal case has been registered against the JKCCC officials including then MD.
Rohella outsourced the online ticketing system of Gulmarg Gondola to M/s Afford Infocom free of cost just like he handed over a portion of under-construction TRC Building at Srinagar to M/S Kashmir Art Quest. These tickets were sold through the official website of Gulmarg Gondola and the amount was embezzled by bypassing the payment gateway and using the official website and database managed by the firm. The access to official website and database including payment gateway is a multi-layer password protected system administered by the officials of M/s Afford Infocom. The database can only be tampered with when all such passwords (including the administrator password which is held by head of the firm i.e Director) are entered correctly by their originators who have the authority to command the software to skip payment gateway.
An inquiry by Tourism Department reveals that the details in the database were erased by an employee of M/s Afford Infocom that is hosting the database, as a result of which the quantum of money actually embezzled cannot be established. This argument is ridiculous as every database has a backup server that can restore the data in case of database crash or other damage due to natural disaster and the details of this scam can easily be unearthed by NIC.
Further, reconciliation of money received from online booking with the number of e-tickets issued to tourists can also establish the quantum of money embezzled by the beneficiaries who manipulated the system and diverted the payments received through payment gateway into their bottomless pit instead of official account of J&KCCC. Rohella who headed JKCCC failed to ensure regular reconciliation of revenue with e-tickets issued during that particular period with counter-foil of the boarding passes as is done by airline officials.
Incharge MD JKCCC Nazir Ahmad Mir confirmed to STATE TIMES that State Vigilance Organisation was holding an investigation but he asserted that it were the officials of the Corporation itself who got suspicious and nailed the fraud. He said that during a departmental inquiry, an employee of Afford Infocom confessed to the crime and offered to return entire amount of Rs 4.89 lakh. However, JKCCC wrote to the government, seeking direction about the further course of action. “They claim that only Rs 4.89 lakh has been swindled but only an investigation by IT and cyber crime experts can determine precisely how much of the revenue has been siphoned off”, Mr Mir said. He said that with average annual revenue of Rs 40 crore a year, Gulmarg Gandola’s income in financial year of 2014-15 was Rs 46 crore.
As Director Tourism, Rohella created further liabilities to the tune of Rs. 209.46 lacs over and above the sanctioned budget of Rs. 650.00 lacs by not adhering to budgetary ceiling and cleared under process bills, amounting to Rs. 395.98 lacs. Inspite of a ban imposed by the government, he illegally engaged 482 persons as "need-based workers". He projected additionality of Rs. 1330.00 lacs over and above the Annual Plan 2014-15, allocation whereof was Rs. 2245.75 lacs.
END
Picked up by Talat Parvez Rohella for e-ticket contract, Afford Infocom is alleged to have swindled crores in truck with officials
Ahmad Ali Fayyaz
________
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Enjoying high political and bureaucratic clout during Omar Abdullah’s NC-Congress coalition, tainted KAS officer Talat Parvez has managed his return to the bureaucratic mainstream and appointment as Director of Floriculture on October 19th despite the fact that the Departmental Inquiries pointed out large scale irregularities and brazen violation of laws and rules during his tenure as Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation (JKCCC) and Director of Tourism Kashmir.
Prior to his appointment as Director Tourism Kashmir in May 2012, Rohella functioned as MD JKCCC. Even after his transfer, he retained JKCCC as additional charge. In January 2015, Governor's administration transferred and appointed him as DC Baramulla. However, in view of serious charges and allegations of corruption and misuse of official position, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government attached him to General Administration Department (GAD) in its first administrative reshuffle in March 2015.
On one hand, Government served a memo of charges on Rohella and on May 8th and on July 24th appointed Commissioner-Secretary Agriculture Mohammad Ashraf Bukhari as Inquiry Officer. On the other hand, same government picked up Rohella for induction into IAS without clearance from Vigilance and without regard to the Inquiry going on against him. The file of recommendation containing Rohella’s name was secretly carried on former Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday’s direction by Additional Secretary GAD Khalid Majeed by hand in the morning flight one day in the middle of July when memo of charges had been served and Bukhari was being appointed as Inquiry Officer.
Mr Majeed delivered the file at Union Public Service Commission in New Delhi and returned same day by the afternoon flight.
Again, on one hand an internal inquiry found large scale fraudulent cobduct in allotment of works without tenders to the tune of Rs 15 crore in JKCCC during Rohella’s tenure besides unauthirised engagement of around 80 casual labourers, followed by e-ticket scam worth crores. On the other hand, post of Director Floriculture was reserved for the same officer for three months. Finally, even after Mr Khanday quit in protest, and after the allegations against Rohella died down due to other administrative halos, he was brought back and appointed Director Floriculture. If well placed sources are to be believed, in the second phase of his rehabilitation, he is being given a far more important posting.
Reports that a former Chief Minister advocated Rohella’s reinstatement could not be confirmed from independent sources. However, sources insisted that a senior PDP leader and Cabinet Minister came to the rescue of three blue eyed officers when they were about to be terminated as deadwood in the beginning of the PDP-BJP government. Rohella, sources said, was one among them.
While many of the real deadwood and known liabilities managed to get themselves off the hook, those terminated included a junior official who had allegedly accepted Rs 500 bribe money and an AEE of PDD who landed in Vigilance net over a transformer platform. They also included an officer who had been attending his young daughter suffering from leukemia (blood cancer) in hospital for two years. His leave was sanctioned by GAD that terminated his services immediately after inducting him in KAS and promoting him as Additional Secretary after obtaining vigilance clearance.
As MD JKCCC, Rohella is facing charges of unauthorised allotment of works to handpicked contractors to the tune of Rs 15 crore without calling tenders besides unauthorised engagement of nearly 80 people as casual labourers, to be subsequently absorbed against Class 4th vacancies. He also allotted e-ticket contract to M/S Afford Infocom who were recently caught in the embezzlement of tickets for unknown amount of money. On a comprehensive complaint, State Vigilance Organisation has now completed secretly Preliminary Verification and many of the charges have been found correct. A criminal case has been registered against the JKCCC officials including then MD.
Rohella outsourced the online ticketing system of Gulmarg Gondola to M/s Afford Infocom free of cost just like he handed over a portion of under-construction TRC Building at Srinagar to M/S Kashmir Art Quest. These tickets were sold through the official website of Gulmarg Gondola and the amount was embezzled by bypassing the payment gateway and using the official website and database managed by the firm. The access to official website and database including payment gateway is a multi-layer password protected system administered by the officials of M/s Afford Infocom. The database can only be tampered with when all such passwords (including the administrator password which is held by head of the firm i.e Director) are entered correctly by their originators who have the authority to command the software to skip payment gateway.
An inquiry by Tourism Department reveals that the details in the database were erased by an employee of M/s Afford Infocom that is hosting the database, as a result of which the quantum of money actually embezzled cannot be established. This argument is ridiculous as every database has a backup server that can restore the data in case of database crash or other damage due to natural disaster and the details of this scam can easily be unearthed by NIC.
Further, reconciliation of money received from online booking with the number of e-tickets issued to tourists can also establish the quantum of money embezzled by the beneficiaries who manipulated the system and diverted the payments received through payment gateway into their bottomless pit instead of official account of J&KCCC. Rohella who headed JKCCC failed to ensure regular reconciliation of revenue with e-tickets issued during that particular period with counter-foil of the boarding passes as is done by airline officials.
Incharge MD JKCCC Nazir Ahmad Mir confirmed to STATE TIMES that State Vigilance Organisation was holding an investigation but he asserted that it were the officials of the Corporation itself who got suspicious and nailed the fraud. He said that during a departmental inquiry, an employee of Afford Infocom confessed to the crime and offered to return entire amount of Rs 4.89 lakh. However, JKCCC wrote to the government, seeking direction about the further course of action. “They claim that only Rs 4.89 lakh has been swindled but only an investigation by IT and cyber crime experts can determine precisely how much of the revenue has been siphoned off”, Mr Mir said. He said that with average annual revenue of Rs 40 crore a year, Gulmarg Gandola’s income in financial year of 2014-15 was Rs 46 crore.
As Director Tourism, Rohella created further liabilities to the tune of Rs. 209.46 lacs over and above the sanctioned budget of Rs. 650.00 lacs by not adhering to budgetary ceiling and cleared under process bills, amounting to Rs. 395.98 lacs. Inspite of a ban imposed by the government, he illegally engaged 482 persons as "need-based workers". He projected additionality of Rs. 1330.00 lacs over and above the Annual Plan 2014-15, allocation whereof was Rs. 2245.75 lacs.
END
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