Vigilance wing to probe files of MC shops on rent

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 11

The Municipal Corporation of Bathinda has asked the vigilance wing of the Local Bodies Department to probe the files of its 401 rented shops.

Municipal Commissioner Dr Rishipal Singh has written a letter to the Local Bodies Department’s Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) and also had a word with him on the entire issue.

Dr Rishipal Singh asked him to send a team to Bathinda for the probe at the earliest.

The Municipal Commissioner has found irregularities in most of the rent branch files in a probe conducted by him.

While some of the shops are given on rent without any agreement, a few have wrong affidavits. Besides, some were given on rent without any permission.

Despite having more than 400 shops, the MCB is not getting a substantial amount of money in rent. Most of the shops are located in prime markets of the city.

The Municipal Commissioner had called all files of the rent branch in his office, which are kept in the conference room.

Two employees have been deputed to prepare a list regarding the year in which shops were given on rent, to whom and presently what is the market rate of the shops.

Apart from this, it is also being recorded as to what rent the MCB is presently getting from these shops and for how long the rent has not been hiked.

The Municipal Commissioner has also directed the staff to gather full information regarding the agreement of the shops.

The MCB has its shops on Mall Road, Railway road, in Gandhi Market, Fish Market and other places. A legal battle is on for around 178 with the MCB.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Dr Rishipal Singh confirmed that he had found irregularities in the rent branch files and had recommended a vigilance branch probe into it.

Some time back, the Local Bodies Department had issued a notification in which a plan was chalked out to sell the shops to tenants with some conditions.