Bhuj APMC chairman accused of selling godowns at throwaway price

Bhuj (Gujarat), July 12 (IANS) The Bhuj Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee has reportedly failed to submit account documents, committee meeting minutes and resolutions to the district cooperative registrar. In a letter to the APMC, the registrar had demanded the documents to conduct an inquiry into alleged financial irregularities.

A citizen Dhiraj Garva in a letter to the cooperative registrar has alleged that APMC chairman and BJP leader Keshubhai Patel, board members and the secretary have sold two godowns to a bidder Arvind Gaur for peanuts.

His allegation is that the APMC had invited bids for godowns. Three godowns auctions were completed, each godown was sold for Rs 65 lakh. Bidder Arvind Gaur's bid was rejected by the APMC committee, so he had challenged the bidding process in the high court.

Dhiraj has alleged that on condition of withdrawing the petition, the board had sold two godowns to Gaur, for which he paid only Rs 30 lakhs for both and the APMC suffered a loss of Rs one crore.

Taking cognisance of these allegations, the registrar's office on June 27 wrote to the chairman and the APMC secretary to submit documents within seven days to conduct an inquiry into financial irregularities. More than 15 days have passed but the APMC has not submitted the documents, said Motilal Parmar, officer in the registrar's office.

In his defence Keshubhai Patel said, "These are politically motivated accusations, if the person had any proof he would have submitted evidence with the letter, but he has not. I or the board have not indulged in financial irregularities, and my term as chairman ended a month ago."

It is a blatant lie, if he has retired from the APMC, why is he still using APMC vehicles for political activities. If what Patel is claiming is true then it is one more case of abuse of power, said Dhiraj.