Tampering with attendance, Mayor wants probe

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 23

Two contractual employees working under the Swachh Bharat Mission allegedly tampered with the attendance register and marked their present on gazetted holidays and Saturdays as well.

The photocopy of the register has been done.

It has come to the notice that MIS assistant Sonia and DEO-cum-office assistant Manit Jindal had tampered with the attendance register.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath, sensing the seriousness of the issue, has seized the attendance register.

He has also written to MCB Commissioner Sanyam Aggarwal for a probe into the matter.

The Mayor claimed that the issue was serious and officials involved in it should not be spared.

It is learnt that marking attendance on Saturday and other holidays was just a tip of the iceberg.

Sources claimed that these officials had tampered with the attendance register in the past too.

This irregularity is going on under the patronage of a senior MCB official.

Congress Bathinda president Mohan Lal Jhumba claimed that in this incident, FIR for cheating and conspiracy should be registered against the officials.

He said the issue should be brought to the notice of Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu if action was not taken soon.

Apart from this issue, the irregularities in the recruitment in the MCB under the Swachh Bharat Mission through outsourcing during the SAD regime should be looked into, he added.

It is learnt that the daughter in-law of a steno of a senior MCB official was recruited while the sister in-law of senior MCB official also landed a job.

The post of a unity development officer is vacant. It all happened under the nose of senior MCB officials.

Municipal councillors who raised irregularities in the MCB recruitment during the general house meeting have also claimed that no action is taken in this incident.

They have threatened to stage a protest in the next general house meeting.