REPORT : ALOK SEMWAL
Crores have gone missing. Officers implicated. An SIT ordered and then forgotten. And the employees who dared to speak? They got punished.
This is the story of the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation — a government body where, according to its own employees’ union, financial wrongdoing has run unchecked for years across multiple divisions and depots. The numbers being thrown around are staggering: anywhere between ₹20 and ₹25 crore in irregularities. And yet, the people responsible are walking free.
It Started Before the Ink Had Dried
When Uttarakhand became a state and the Forest Development Corporation was set up, there was a straightforward administrative task at hand — settle the liabilities and assets, account for every rupee. What happened instead, allege the union members, was a quiet looting in broad daylight.
Over ₹2.18 crore worth of dues were to be recovered from various officers during this adjustment process. Much of it never came back. Some was partially recovered, and the rest was written off — conveniently, without any explanation.
Here is the part that stings the most. A senior officer had dues of ₹48,16,000 hanging against his name. The system recovered ₹1,09,000 and looked the other way. A small-time employee owed ₹55,856 — and was made to pay it in full, without a single day’s mercy.
That right there is not just corruption. That is a statement about who this system protects and who it grinds down.
Lalkuan: ₹10 Crore Gone, Inquiry Report Nowhere to Be Found
At Depot Numbers 4 and 5 in Lalkuan, a scandal of over ₹10 crore has been alleged. On October 4, 2023, the Forest Minister himself called a meeting and ordered an SIT inquiry. That was almost a year and a half ago.
The report has not been made public. No action has been announced. No one has been held accountable.
What was found during the initial probe makes it harder to understand the silence. Around 115 cubic metres of timber — worth an estimated ₹20 to 25 lakh — was found in excess, unaccounted for. On top of that, 60 cubic metres showed a mismatch in wood species. Both are serious enough irregularities on their own. Together, they point to something far more organised than a clerical error.
The union says pressure was applied to keep this buried. Looking at how things stand today, it is hard to argue otherwise.
Ramnagar and Haridwar: A Pattern That Is Hard to Ignore
Ramnagar’s western division flagged a financial discrepancy of over ₹1.11 crore. That was between May and August of 2023. Senior officials were informed. Formal letters were sent. And then — nothing. The files moved, the case did not.
Haridwar’s Mining Division has its own set of numbers that demand answers. For 2023-24, the alleged irregularity stands at approximately ₹1.22 crore. The following year brought more trouble — around ₹57 lakh in discrepancies surfaced across various mining collection gates. By February 18, 2025, three gates had individually recorded figures of ₹18,88,879, ₹18,30,987 and ₹20,13,292.
These are not rounded-off estimates. These are specific numbers — which means someone, somewhere, has the records. The question is whether anyone with authority will actually look at them.
RFID Chips and a Law That Exists Only on Paper
Both the 2016 and 2020 mining policies were clear: every vehicle transporting minor minerals must carry an RFID chip. The idea was to create a trackable, tamper-proof system so that every load of material — and every rupee collected — could be accounted for.
What is actually happening on the ground is the opposite. Vehicles without valid documents are operating without any real challenge. And the money being collected at these gates is reportedly not making it to the bank. Where it goes instead is the question no one in authority seems willing to ask.
The Worst Part: They Came After the People Who Talked
Every institution has its unwritten rule — don’t rock the boat. In the UFDC, that rule apparently comes with consequences. Employees who raised alarms about these irregularities did not get protection. They got transferred. Some were suspended. Others faced administrative action designed to exhaust and silence them.
It is a tactic as old as bureaucracy itself — make an example of the person who speaks, and watch everyone else fall in line.
Provincial President T.S. Bisht is not falling in line. He has made it clear that the union wants a fair inquiry, conducted within a fixed timeframe, with real outcomes. He has also put the administration on notice — if things do not change, a full-scale movement is on the table.
The ball is now in the government’s court. The union has the numbers. The public has been told. What happens next will say everything about whether accountability in Uttarakhand is real — or just another promise written in disappearing ink.
