NAGPUR, Dec 23: Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today announced setting up of a new inquiry committee headed by additional chief secretary K C Srivastava to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the misappropriation of funds of the Tribal Development Corporation which took place back in 1987-88.

Joshi made this announcement in the Legislative Assembly during question hour while replying to supplimentaries to a main question posed by Fayyaj Ahmed (Samata Party) regarding the status of the inquiry held by the state government regarding the swindling of funds and the action taken on it. The state government had then set up "the Uike Sukhdeo Committee" in 1988 which reported a scam of Rs five crore by the corporation and involved major government officials. Congress member R R Patil demanded disclosure of the names of officials involved in the scam to which Joshi informed the appearing of the name of BMC Municipal Commissioner Girish Gokhale, who was the then managing director of the corporation, in the report alongwith six others.

Giving details about the Uike Sukhdeo Committee enquiry, the chief minister said the then Congress government had appointed another high level committee later to enquire into the matter who gave a clean chit to the officials and no action was taken on them between 1988 to 1995.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.