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PANCHKULA: The rank and file of the Haryana irrigation department is indicted in the state vigilance bureau inquiry into the escalation of Kaushalya dam's cost from Rs 51 crore to Rs 216 crore.

Acting on the findings, chief secretary D S Dhesi has asked the principal secretary of irrigation to act against 23 officials, including retired engineers-in-chief, chief engineers, and superintending engineers. In its 15-page report to the chief secretary , the vigilance bureau has claimed that the previous state government altered the dam's plan to benefit private builders, who came out with residential colonies in PinjoreKalka Urban Complex between 2005 and 2009.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had ordered the investigation based on a complaint from Kalka senior Congress leader Vijay Bansa, who also leads Shivalik Vikas Manch non-government organisation (NGO). The dam in Panchkula is in controversy since 2009 when the-then Haryana government of the Congress widened it from 13 to 30 feet to make a road connecting the national highway with the housing colonies of the private developers.

The documents that Bansal secured from the vigilan ce bureau under the RTI (Right To Information) Act suggest that the officials not only avoided the regular process of survey but also skipped taking clearance from the environment department. “The main allegation is that they used the minerals extracted from the riverbed without any record. We wait for the irrigation department to respond,“ Bansal said.

He ducked questions related to possible action against the-then chief minister Bhupinder Hooda and the bureacrats who cleared the project.Since Huda ( Haryana Urban Development Authority ) has declined to use water from the reservoir, the project has turned out to be a wasteful expenditure of the state irrigation department. It came out in the CAG (comptroller and auditor general) report of 2014 as well.

