Uttarakhand: Big sanitation scam in Pauri District Panchayat, Rs 75 lakh deposited in the account of the wife of an Upanal employee

The Dehradun Municipal Corporation Safai Karamchari scam had not yet cooled down that a similar scam has come to light from Pauri Garhwal district as well. The scam has been revealed through RTI. It has come to light that there has been a scam of 75 lakhs in the name of cleanliness in 15 blocks. Now the DM herself is investigating it.

Cleanliness scam in Pauri District Panchayat: District Panchayat Pauri is once again in the headlines. This time a big scam has come to light in the name of cleaning works. According to the information, an amount of Rs 75 lakh was deposited in the account of the wife of an Upanal Safai Karamchari in the name of cleanliness in various development blocks of the district. This matter is being told of January 2023. It has been revealed that the cleaning tender was issued in a confidential manner in all the 15 development blocks of the District Panchayat. The name of the senior administrative officer has come to the fore behind this entire process, who is currently suspended.

RTI Revealed: It is being told that the senior administrative officer took the bank account of the wife of the Upanal employee in the name of getting her a job. The cleaning tender was approved through the same account. The sanitation worker says that he was not given any information about the tender process. Now he has visited the Dehradun Vigilance office three to four times since last March. In view of the seriousness of the matter, a vigilance inquiry is being demanded.

Rs 75 lakh deposited in the account of the sanitation worker’s wife: In this entire episode, questions have again started being raised on the functioning of the District Panchayat. It is also being told that due to tampering with the files, an attempt was made to suppress the whole matter, due to which the concerned officer has been suspended. In the audit report of the financial year 2024-25, it was revealed that an amount of Rs 75 lakh was deposited in the account of the wife of an Upanal sanitation worker in the name of cleaning works. The layers of the scam were revealed when local resident Karan Rawat sought this information under the Right to Information (RTI).

I got information about the whole episode in the RTI reply received in the first week of June 2025. I immediately complained about this matter to the Garhwal Commissioner. After this, the commissioner sent the file to the Pauri District Magistrate’s office for investigation in the matter. RTI revealed that contracting tenders were approved in 15 development blocks of the district in the name of three family members of the Upanal Safai Karamchari.

The shocking thing is that these people did not even have prior experience of contracting, GST number or other statutory registration. Despite this, work worth lakhs of rupees was assigned to them. 2 Safai Karamcharis were deployed in each block, the total number was 30. They were paid Rs 15,000 per month per employee. At the same time, 10 additional employees, who were posted on VIP duty and in remote areas, were paid Rs 1,000 per day or Rs 30,000 monthly. This tender for cleaning work operated from January to September 2023.

-Karan Rawat, RTI activist-

RTI activists demand vigilance inquiry: The RTI activist says that during this period, government funds were distributed in the name of contracts. Karan Rawat has demanded that there should be a vigilance inquiry into this entire matter. FIR should be registered against the culprits and strict action should be taken.

DM said action will be taken after investigation: On this entire matter, District Magistrate Swati Bhadoria has said that-

The file has been received from the Garhwal Commissioner. The files of the case are being investigated. Further action will be taken against the culprits only after studying the investigation report.

-Swati Bhadoria, District Magistrate, Pauri Garhwal-

Swachhata Karmi Scam has also happened in Dehradun Municipal Corporation: A huge scam in the name of sanitation workers was also done in Dehradun Municipal Corporation. Here, crores of rupees were embezzled in the name of 99 fake sanitation workers for the entire five years from 2019 to 2023. This scam was revealed in 2024. When the CDO investigated on the orders of the DM, it was found that in 22 out of 100 wards of Dehradun Municipal Corporation, 99 sanitation workers were not even appointed, but their salary and PF money was being withdrawn for 5 years. The investigation revealed that the councillors committed a scam for 5 years by showing their relatives, wives and party officials as sanitation workers.