GANDHINAGAR, July 25: Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela has asked Chief Secretary L N S Mukundan to investigate the corruption charges levelled against senior officials in a letter by Ports Minister Umesh Rajyaguru.

In his confidential letter to Vaghela, Rajyaguru had alleged that certain ``corrupt'' officials in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) had minted money through transfers of over a dozen deputy collectors recently. The Chief Secretary has been asked to submit a report within 10 days.

After a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Vaghela told reporters about his directive for a probe but refused to initiate interim disciplinary measures against the ``suspects''. He said action would be taken after Mukundan submitted his report. ``The guilty officials, irrespective of their rank, will lose their job and go home,'' he said.

Clarifying further, he said action would be taken against those responsible for the leakage of the letter and its contents.

When asked if the suspects would be asked to go on leave or suspended pending the inquiry, Vaghela said it was not necessary. ``Whatever I say is the rule, and action will be taken accordingly.''

The Chief Minister evaded a direct reply to persistent queries on what disciplinary action he intended to take against Rajyaguru if the latter's charges proved wrong. He also sought to dismiss the incident as part of a trend under which people levelled allegations and later failed to substantiate them. He said the ordering of a probe should discourage people from making wild allegations against anyone without proof.

Describing as ``rumour'' that his deputy ministers were unhappy with him over being neglected, Vaghela maintained that there was no problem with his ministerial colleagues. ``If there are any problems, these would be solved among ourselves,'' he said.

The Chief Minister has already asked Revenue Minister Atmaram Patel and Industries Minister Dilip Parikh to look into Ministers' grievances.

In his letter, Rajyaguru had also drawn Vaghela's attention to ``transfers of 26 deputy collectors, of which only 12 were recommended by some Ministers and MLAs and the rest were at the behest of certain officials in the CMO for monetary gains''. He had also alleged that these CMO officials were not allowing the others to have an easy access to the Chief Minister even on phone.

The letter was leaked to the Press and the contents came to light when a reporter produced a photostat copy before Industries Minister Parikh, seeking his comment.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.