Jaipur, Dec. 2 -- The public health and engineering department (PHED), following an internal probe, is all set to take action against 171 officials across the state for their alleged involvement in the high-profile Jal Jeevan Mission scam. Chief engineer of PHED, Sandeep Sharma, who was one of the key officers who organised a special camp to aid the investigation, said, "This camp was organised on Sunday and Saturday during which we called the suspected officials including 50 junior engineers, 15 executive engineers, and 40 additional engineers to check some of their documents. Prima facie, they helped the contractors getting tenders of various projects unlawfully and also made them payments." He further added that the department has already submitted a chargesheets of 60 of those officials to the Department of Personnel after an internal probe. "Rest of the chargesheets will also be prepared in the next few weeks and will be submitted to the DoP who will take further actions against those officers." Another senior official from the department also said that a maximum Rs 19 crore such illegal payemnt to the contractors was made in Dausa followed by Rs 14 crores in Kotputli Behror and Rs 10 crore in Jaipur Rural region. The JJM scam in Rajasthan is currently being probed by the Enforcement Directorate who had already arrested former PHED minister Mahesh Joshi on April 25. The arrest took place under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on an FIR which was lodged by the Rajasthan Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on August 8, 2023. The FIR also named 22 other officials including the former Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Subodh Agrawal of the department Agrawal and a private person Sanjay Badhaya who is an alleged close aide of Joshi and was also arrested by the ED on July 16 last year. The case was first came to the fore on August 6, 2023 when the ACB arrested at least five people including some PHED engineers for accepting a Rs 200,000 bribe from a contractor Padam Chand Jain. Later, in view of the seriousness of the case, it was taken over by the ED on August 21, 2023. Joshi was first summoned in the case on March 18. 2024 when he failed to appear. On October 30, 2024, the ED has also submitted an investigation report in the case. HT had earlier reported that the ED's preliminary report found that Joshi and Agrawal were allegedly paid at least 4% of the tender amount as bribe to sanction it to private firms at a higher cost as part of a project under the mission. "In the tenders, Padamchand Jain and Mahesh Mittal had paid 4% of the tender amount upfront as bribe to both ACS, and Sanjay Badhaya (for PHED minister Mahesh Joshi). Agrawal was the head of the PHED's Finance Committee which deals with all tenders worth above Rs 5 crores. He was very much interested in two tenders (by Ganapati Tubewells and Shyam Tubewells companies) related to Nagaur under the jurisdiction of additional chief engineer of the PHED's Ajmer unit," the ED report read, a copy of which seen by HT. It further added: "The tenders were awarded at a premium of 10% above the regular NIT (Notice Inviting Tender) cost. The two tenders were floated for Rs 179 crores and were awarded for Rs 197 crores after the verification report was submitted," Agency had also found that "the minister (through his close associate Sanjay Badhaya) and the ACS Agrawal had also forced a junior engineer Visal Saxena to ensure a 'positive report' on the firms during the tender verification process indicating a favouritism." Aa slew fake e-mail IDs were also created impersonating a multinational engineering company IRCON Internation Limited to give a nod to the fake experience certificates obtained by the officials of the two firms which were also provided to the PHED aiming to get hold of the aforementioned tenders. According to the ED, Jain and Mittal produced the fake documents in order to win 104 tenders worth Rs 979.45 crores between 2021 and 2023. "When the issue was flagged by the IRCON, an official of the company Mukesh Pathak visited some senior IRCON officials in Delhi to bribe them on behalf of the contractors of two private firms. Yet, the IRCON shared the details of forgery with the PHED which were ignored," the report read. Apart from Joshi and Badhaya, ED has also arrested Padam Chand Jain, his son Piyush Jain, and Mahesh Mittal in the case....