5.13 crore scam in Rajnandgaon and Bijapur, Maoist funding also accused

In Bijapur and Rajnandgaon districts of Chhattisgarh, a complaint of scam in tendu patta collection has been made to the Economic Offenses Investigation Branch (EOW) and the Anti -Corruption Bureau (ACB). According to Vivek Kumar Singh, a resident of Raipur, the state government has lost Rs 5.13 crore due to this scam.

It has been reported in the complaint that in the year 2022, contractor Sudhir Kumar Manek, resident of Rajnandgaon, received the contract of collecting Tendupatta in Bhairamgarh area of Bijapur. He was to collect 1300 standard sacks Tendu leaf at the rate of Rs 7,299 per sack, but he collected 4,997.54 standard sacks. Of these, 1476.36 sacks were allegedly collected illegally from Bhairamgarh Sanctuary area.

This caused a loss of about Rs 3.64 crore to the government. In addition, the workers and transporters engaged in the collection work have not been paid yet. A second part of the scam has come to light in Rajaanandgaon, in which 2,669 bore of 7,348 sacks brought from Bhairamgarh in Gurukripa godown and there was a loss of Rs 93.34 lakh in records.

Maoist funding also accused

In this case, FIR of cheating, criminal betrayal and conspiracy has been registered on 19 June 2025 at Rajnandgaon Kotwali. Tribal collectors of eight villages of Bijapur have not yet been paid Rs 44.79 lakh. The complaint has also made serious allegations of Maoist funding.

DFO overshadowed the information commission order

Disregarding the order of the Information Commission, DFO Pankaj Rajput posted in Khairagarh Forest Division overshadowed. The Department of Forest and Climate Change has issued a notice of disciplinary action under All India Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969. They have been asked to reply in 15 days.

The case is of January 2020. Warly living lover Nitin Singhvi had sought documents related to mass money loss by elephants from Mahasamund forest division. The then Public Information Officer Mayank Pandey called Singhvi for observation. The Information Commission, while objecting to this, gave clear instructions that documents should be sent free of cost.

Later DFO Pankaj Rajput was posted in Mahasamund and informed about the appeal process in the High Court, but did not submit the adjournment order despite repeated instructions from the Commission. Due to this, the Commission recommended disciplinary action to the government on August 3, 2022.

In 2025, the Information Commission came to know that the action is pending even after three years of the order. The ministry then issued a show cause notice to DFO Pankaj Rajput on 11 July 2025, calling negligence a violation of All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968.