DFO’s clerk held with bribe

HOSHIARPUR: A team of vigilance officials caught the clerk of Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Garhshankar, accepting Rs 35,000 as bribe from a person to forward his file to the central government to get the requisite No Objection Certificate (NOC) for allowing the applicant to make a road to his shop.
It is learnt that around a year ago, the complainant, Mukesh Kumar hailing from Subhash Nagar, Phagwara, had put up his file in the DFO office, Garhshankar, to get the NOC from the Centre for allowing him to make way for his shop at Siyana village near Balachaur.
Contrary to the team’s assumption that the bribe would be accepted by the DFO himself, he said, the cash was taken by his clerk.
“Probably, the DFO was taking a big chunk from this amount for which the clerk has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act,” informed the vigilance cop, adding that though the vigilance lacked evidence against the DFO, his interrogation couldn’t be ruled out.
Garhshankar DFO Tajinder Singh, however, denied such allegations. He admitted that Mukesh’s file was pending in his office, but he couldn’t give satisfactory explanation for the delay.