After 17 years ofwait and legal entanglements, efforts of Amit Khare,
the then district commissioner of Chibasa in south Bihar whose raid on
the animal husbandry department unearthed the Rs 950 crore fodder scam,
bore fruit on Monday when Lalu Prasad Yadav and others were convicted.
Recounting the raid he conducted on January 27, 1996, Khare, who is now
a joint secretary in the union ministry of human resource development,
says, “We never thought it would turn out to be such a big thing. But
any upright and honest officer would have done the same.”
The 1985-batch IAS officer smelt a rat when he was investigating inputs
from the state finance ministry about irregularities in use of funds at
the district animal husbandry department. His office learnt that the
district animal husbandry department had withdrawn Rs 10 crore and Rs 9
crore twice without giving any details, which was abnormal.
Even after repeated communication, nobody from the the animal husbandry
department responded, which forced Khare to conduct the raid.
“Everybody, including the district animal husbandry officer, had fled
from the office. Bogus bills were scattered all around and none of the
bills was of more than Rs 10 lakh. I immediately sealed the office and
the rest is history,” said Khare
Immediately after the raid, Khare informed the state finance
commissioner, after which raids were conducted in other districts and
the scam was unearthed.
Khare was later transferred to revive the then defunct Bihar State
Labour Corporation. Due to the parliamentary elections in 1996 and his
transfer, Khare did not face any political pressure within the state.
Later, Khare also served as director (primary education) of government
of Bihar; state HRD secretary in Jharkhand; and also as in-charge
vice-chancellor of Ranchi University.
Khare, who was born in Nagpur, completed his schooling in Ranchi and
did graduation in physics (hons) from St Stephen’s College. He completed
his PG in management from IIM Ahmedabad.
“There are many honest officers working in the system and I am sure they are doing great work,” 52-year-old Khare adds.
He is presently holding the charge of joint secretary, International
Cooperation, Book Publishing and Copyrights and Education Policy and
Planning in the Development of Higher Education in the union HRD
ministry. His responsibilities include bilateral as also multi-lateral
dialogues and negotiations as also interacting with UNESCO and WIPO.
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This the IAS officer who unearthed the Rs950-cr fodder scam
Amit Khare
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