Whistleblower questions delay in action

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 22

As the MC has failed to take any action into the alleged smart vending zone scam for the past eleven months, Kuldeep Singh Khaira of Vigilant Citizens’ Forum has sent a complaint to the Local Bodies Minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu.

After finding drawbacks, the Local Bodies Department had earlier ordered the civic body to cancel the agreement for the smart vending zone with the contractor concerned in June 2018.

The construction work for smart vending zone under Southern Bypass near canal bridge, BRS Nagar, had begun without any permission from the Irrigation Department last year.

However, the work was stalled after the Irrigation Department complained to the police against illegal construction. The iron structures, which were raised to construct pillars, have not been removed till date.

Khaira said, “I lodged a complaint with the Minister as well as Principal Secretary of the Local Government, pertaining to the construction of shops and commercial halls in the name of smart vending zone on the land of the Irrigation Department without their no objection certificate. But neither any action has been taken against the officials concerned of the MC, nor has the contract executed between the MC and private company been cancelled.”

Following Khaira’s complaint to the Chief Vigilance Officer of the Local Bodies Government, the Municipal Corporation had been ordered to cancel the contract and send the names of the officials involved in sanctioning the project to the private company so that action might be initiated against them.

“But it is sorry to say that neither the contract has been cancelled nor the name of the officials concerned have been sent to the headquarters till date to save the mastermind of the scam,” he said.

The complainant has demanded from the Local Bodies Government to direct the MC to cancel the said project and exemplary action must be initiated against the MC officials who were responsible for the scam.

He has also demanded action against the MC authorities, which failed to cancel the contract till date.

MC Commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur could not be contacted for comment.

Drawbacks in project

According to information, the owner of the land where the smart vending zone was proposed is the Irrigation Department. However, MC officials had signed an agreement for the smart vending zone project with the private firm without taking permission from the department.

The complainant had alleged that the Ludhiana MC wanted to benefit a private firm, which had to “generate 90 per cent income” from the market while the civic body had to receive only “10 per cent income as licence fee”.

The complainant had claimed that the actual land owner, Irrigation Department, was supposed to get only 15 per cent of the income received by the Municipal Corporation from the smart vending zone.

Information obtained under the RTI Act had revealed that the private firm was empowered to collect up to Rs 10,000 per month from each tenant and even if they wanted to collect more, they could collect it with due permission from the Municipal Commissioner.

However, the MC had to receive no fee during the first year, Rs 500 per shop per month during the second year as licence fee and Rs 1,000 per shop per month from the third year, as per the agreement. Notably, the project was not part of the smart city mission.