Moga MC staff protest against commissioner

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, July 14

Employees of the Moga Municipal Corporation (MC) staged a protest against Commissioner Anita Darshi and burnt her effigy on the main square of the city on Saturday, levelling serious allegations of official misconduct and corruption against her. The employees raised slogans against the commissioner, alleging that she was not doing her official work efficiently.

It may be mentioned that apart from the employees, Darshi has been at loggerheads with the Mayor and majority of the councillors for the past many months. She has not appeared in the General House meetings for the past six months and held up many files related to allotment of work orders of various projects.

The protesting employees alleged that Darshi was working as a “personal employee” of a Congress MLA.

President of the employees’ union Vipin Handa claimed that the staff of the corporation were not happy with the working and behavior of the commissioner and it would not be possible for them to work with her. “We demand from the Punjab government to transfer her immediately”, he said.

A few months ago, a majority of the councillors unanimously passed a resolution against the commissioner for allegedly misbehaving with two councillors Deepinder Singh Sandhu and Kirpal Singh on the premises of the MC office. They demanded from the state government to take departmental action against her, but to no avail.

Mayor Akshit Jain has warned that if the government failed to act, they would be forced to pass a resolution to “terminate” her services. “We will soon file a writ petition against her in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking her dismissal from the service,” he warned.

The commissioner had also courted a controversy over the allotment of a tender of outdoor advertisements for more than Rs 1 crore to a local firm, Great Punjab Printing. The Mayor and councillors had levelled allegations of corruption in the allotment process. Jain alleged the process of allotment of this tender was cancelled by the Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) of the local body and directions were issued to recall fresh bids. The commissioner had denied the allegations.