Udaipur : The Anti Corruption Bureau sleuths on Thursday arrested an assistant forester at Mahadi check post in Mamer range of Kotra block in Udaipur district, for taking bribe of 5600 rupees from the complainants. The accused Vardichand son of Ravji Meena resident of Kherwada, was caught red handed with the bribe money which he had taken in lieu of making a GPS report of their forest right pattas. The accused demanded the bribe claiming it to be the prescribed fees for making the report which, actually, is issued free to the tribal community.
ASP (ACB) Sudhir Joshi told the media that in a written complaint given at the office, two men Vada son of Arjan and Gula son of Chandura said that they both were having possession of forest lands in Mahadi even before 2005 and as per the government rule they were eligible to apply for the forest right pattas for their land holdings. Their applications had been pending at the panchayat samiti office lacking GPS reports of the land which is issued by the assistant forester.
When the men approached Vardichand for the GPS report , the latter said that they would have to pay a fee of 4 thousand rupees each in lieu of the reports and that the department would give a receipt for it and then the reports would be made. The men argued for the report to be issued free of cost to the forest dwellers but the accused did not listen and finally on much persuasion agreed to issue the report for 2800 rupees from each men. The complaint was verified and on Thursday when the men handed the money to Vardichand, he was nabbed by the ACB team.
