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Abohar, April 17
Pulling up the Municipal Council for not responding to a letter sent on March 15, the Director, Local Bodies, Punjab, has sent one more letter directing the MC to submit the status report within seven days on criminal proceedings regarding a property scam that surfaced in 2010. A case was registered by the Vigilance Bureau on June 9, 2016, following which clerk Jaspal Singh was suspended.
The Retired Municipal Employees Welfare Association had filed a complaint against three former executive officers in this connection. The complainant said terms and conditions for the sale of commercial property on Nai Sadak here were tampered with to benefit some allottees. Even when the sale deeds were yet to be executed and payments were pending, officials approved site plans illegally for the construction of some shopping flats.
The government had told the council to inform how much loss it had suffered (due to the scam). This would help them in taking further action on the issue, the letter had stated. But the council ignored the March 15 letter.
Three former executive officers of the MC were indicted in the inquiry report submitted by retired IAS officer RC Nayyar in August last year for “carelessness, negligence and causing financial loss to the council” in the property scam.
The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case in 2016. But the FIR was registered only against Jaspal Singh, clerk, and MC ex-president Shivraj Goyal of the BJP. However, both got bail from courts.
The association said one of the executive officers indicted in the inquiry report held additional charge at the council here in the same capacity. How can the government expect him to assess the financial loss caused to the council, the NGO questioned. As the council did not have any elected president for more than a year and vice president for the past two years, it should be dismissed and any civil services officer be appointed as its administrator to protect people’s interests, the NGO demanded.
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