ED begins probe into tender irregularities in Bengal Zoo Directorate

Kolkata, Nov 11(IANS) Based on specific inputs, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started a preliminary enquiry on the alleged tendering irregularities in the Zoo Directorate of West Bengal.

The Zoo Directorate comes under the jurisdiction of West Bengal Forest Department, whose current minister Jyotipriya Mallick is currently under ED custody because of alleged involvement in the multi-crore ration distribution case in the state as the former state food & supplies minister.

Sources said that the central agency sleuths have started enquiring about the departed project reports (DPRs) of the Directorate for which tenders were floated.

There are allegations that the outsourced agencies which prepared the DPRs for the directorate also participated in the tender process with different identities which was a clear violation of norms as specified in the process.

Sources said that when such irregularities reveal that they might have occurred due to influencing the top brass in the Directorate and the state forest department who indulged such irregularities out of some vested interest.

An animal rescue centre at the Sundarbans area in South 24 Parganas district is under special focus of the central investigation agency sleuths on this count, sources said.

Similarly, the ED is also viewing seriously the complaints of different environmental activist groups that during the last couple of years the state forest department has allowed creation of resorts through illegal occupation of forest lands with the state forest department being silent in the matters.

Apart from that there are also complaints of several instances of illegal cutting down of trees as well as allowing illegal permission for setting up of housing projects at the forest adjacent buffer zones during the last couple of years.

Mallick served as the state food & supplies minister from 2011 to 2021.