Face2News/Abohar.
Lakhs of rupee are feared to have been siphoned off by raising inflated diesel consumption bills in the Municipal Corporation here. A sub-committee of three councilors completed a preliminary inquiry and found the allegations to be substantial. Mayor Vimal Thatai said that the inquiry report has been sent to MC Commissioner for further action.
MLA Sandeep Jakhar has requested Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and Minister of Local Govt Balkar Singh to order a high-level probe to bring the erring officials to book.Preliminary inquiry indicated that inflated consumption of diesel in the corporation's vehicles crossed the standard parameters.
Looking at the past performance of the Municipal Council, well-placed sources recalled that in 2010, bungling surfaced allegedly in the auction of commercial plots near Nai Sadak.
Retired Municipal Council Employees Welfare Association president Ashok Watts said, “We complained about the property scam in 2015. It was investigated by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Local Government Department and senior officials of the Local Fund Division. They held three executive officers Bhushan Garg, Bhushan Rana and Jasbir Singh Dhaliwal guilty even as the trio refuted the allegations.”
Retired Municipal Council Employees Welfare Association president Ashok Watts said, “We complained about the property scam in 2015. It was investigated by the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Local Government Department and senior officials of the Local Fund Division. They held three executive officers Bhushan Garg, Bhushan Rana and Jasbir Singh Dhaliwal guilty even as the trio refuted the allegations.”
He said that due to a lackluster attitude of the Department of Local Govt, the investigation was assigned to the Vigilance Department. The VG registered a case against Jaspal Singh Clerk. Later former Municipal Council Chairman and BJP leader Shivraj Goyal was also named in the FIR. Goyal got bail from the court and now the case is fixed for hearing in the District Sessions Court on October 4. Meanwhile, Jaspal Singh has passed away.
Watts said that during a hearing before the State Information Commission, MC’s representative had said that video CDs relating to the auction of commercial plots had gone missing. In another case the MC said records of the past ten years were not available. But till now, no FIR had been registered about the missing record, none was held accountable by the department. To bring the scams to a logical conclusion, it was necessary that the present government that claims zero tolerance on corruption should order an inquiry by the Vigilance Department, he said.