Director General Assam Rifles

MHA Probing Charges Against Assam Rifles DG: Antony
PTI | New Delhi | Sep 27, 2011
The Home Ministry is probing the charges of financial irregularities against Director General Assam Rifles Lt Gen Rameshwar Roy after the Defence Ministry forwarded to it the complaints against the officer.

"The ministry had received some complaints in this regard but the matter was forwarded to the Home Ministry," Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters today when asked to comment on charges of financial irregularities against the officer.

Assam Rifles is the oldest paramilitary organisation in the country and is commanded by Army officers sent on deputation to the Home Ministry.

Though the Home Ministry is still probing the charges against the officer, nothing had been found against him in the initial investigations and allegations seemed to be motivated, the sources had said.

Speaking on the issue, Army Chief General V K Singh on Friday had said that "appropriate action" would be taken in the case involving Roy.

"The issue is under investigation and we will take appropriate action as per the Army rules," he said.

Meanwhile, commenting on the probe ordered in the alleged Directorate General of Resettlement scam, the Minister said there will no compromise on the issue of corruption and anyone found guilty will be punished.

After an in-house inquiry of the Ministry detected irregularities in the resettlement of ex-servicemen, Antony referred the case to Serious Fraud Investigation Office under Corporate Affairs Ministry for further investigations.

Commenting on the Ministry's decision to put on hold the first joint venture between the Mazagon Dockyards Limited (MDL) and Pipavav Shipyard, Antony said the step was taken after receiving complaints from two other companies.

On the rationale behind allowing shipyards to form joint ventures, the Minister said, "All the shipyards have full orders. They would have taken several years to complete them. In the present security scenario, we cannot wait for that long so we allowed joint ventures."

The Minister said that as a public sector entity, MDL has been nominated for several projects worth lakhs of crores and so, "they can't give (those projects) to the JV. For that, the JV should compete. Otherwise that will be exploitation."

He said the Ministry will take a decision soon on the issue and also evolve guidelines to plug any loopholes in the formation of JVs between PSUs and private sector companies.
MHA Probing Charges Against Assam Rifles DG: Antony