Reacting to the statement of Minister of State for Fertilisers Rao Inderjit Singh in House, in which the latter referred to CBI enquiries against co-op titan IFFCO, one of the senior functional directors said frustrated individuals keep writing anonymous letters to the Ministry. “Ministry is obliged to forward these letters to the investigating agencies; it has been happening for so many years now”, he added.
As a result you see media reports appearing now and then and screaming CBI cases against IFFCO, said the Director requesting anonymity. “It is a vendetta against the cooperative colossus, pure and simple”, he underlined.
It bears recall that earlier on Tuesday, PTI reported that Minister of State for Fertilisers Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that “Department of Fertilisers has referred various complaints pertaining to corruption and irregularities in IFFCO to CBI for enquiry/reports and the same are awaited,”. Even earlier to this, a couple of months ago another minister Jitendra Singh had told in a written reply to the House , that the CBI had registered three cases against IFFCO and Kribhco as received from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.
Getting at the bottom of the issue, the IFFCO Director said “there are several hanger-ons both in politics and cooperatives who wish to seek undue favour from IFFCO. IFFCO stands tall today because of its professionalism and to satisfy a few it cannot compromise with the professional conduct. And the problem starts right here. Frustrated from our door they write letters leveling frivolous charges; none of which have been proved ever in past”, he said attempting a DNA analysis of the issue.
“The Ministry, as is the practice, forwards such complaint letters to the CBI. The investigation agency writes letter to us and we reply them with facts and figures thereby helping them separate the grain from the chaff”, he explained.
“To tell you the truth, even these agencies are tired of such baseless accusations and privately confess about them”, said the Director. Besides, officials of CBI and even ED know that IFFCO does not fall under their jurisdiction but they are compelled to carry on such useless exercises, he added.
It may not be out of place to mention here that IFFCO does not have any govt share and it is wholly owned by cooperatives. [Incidentally this is IFFCO’s refrain also). Retired officials of investigative agencies say that CBI and ED could be activated only when there is a loss of or harm to the government property and as such they have no locus standi in the case of a fully owned cooperative.