NEW DELHI, MAY 27: With her sight firmly focused on the West Bengal package, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee now wants to appoint an official indicted by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) as her adviser.Mamata has cleared the name of Member (Engineering) V K Agnihotri to become her adviser following his retirement on May 31, primarily to expedite the railway projects in her state. She has ignored the recommendation of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) of issuing a ``recorded warning'' to the official. In fact, the CVC has in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary on May 3 brought the matter to his notice.``With assembly elections in West Bengal slated to be held early next year, the projects there are getting priority over all others,'' sources in Rail Bhawan said. And Agnihotri, by virtue of being in charge of engineering, controls construction of all new lines, railway stations and other projects like doubling, repair and maintenance of permanent way and works. ``As an adviser to the railway minister, his brief would be to concentrate on the projects in her state,'' Agnihotri and two other officials - Executive Director (Track and Procurement) R P Gupta and Executive Director (Finance) M.S. Khan - were indicted by the CVC for having taken ``some decisions surreptitiously, abusing their authority, transgressing their financial limits and conferring undue benefits on certain parties.'' This was regarding purchase of concrete and wooden sleepers.While the two executive directors were served with major penalty charge-sheets, as recommended by the CVC, and then transferred, Agnihotri was to be issued a ``recorded warning'', keeping in view his seniority - equivalent to a Secretary to Government of India. This was in July 1999 following which Mamata sent an explanation to the CVC, requesting reconsideration of its advice regarding Member (Engineering).However, the CVC refused and toughened its stance further. ``The case of Shri Agnihotri, seen in retrospect, suggests that the Commission had apparently taken a very liberal view earlier for issuing a `recorded warning' instead of treating him on par with Shri Gupta and Shri Khan,'' the CVC wrote.``From the scale of irregularities and the extent of manipulation, the Commission is of the firm view that the instances here are prototype cases of corruption because of lack of transparency at the senior level in the government. On merit, therefore, there is no ground for reconsideration of the earlier advice tendered by the Commission in this case,'' it added.Mamata could not be contacted as she was in West Bengal for the by-elections in the state.
