Trail mail fails to mollify senator as PU refutes irregularities

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 14

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has asked UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore to send a reply to Panjab University (PU) senator Prof Rajesh Gill regarding her complaint about allegations of corruption in the e-rickshaw project on campus.

Chain of letters

Professor Gill has raised various allegations on the e-rickshaw issue in her complaint, dated April 17, to the PMO. The letter from the PMO to the UT Administrator was sent on April 23. The Administrator’s office had then forwarded the complaint to the Vice-President Office (VPO) on May 13. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu is the Chancellor of the PU.

Gill also filed complaints to the UT Administrator, which have been sent to the VPO. Secretary in the VPO, Hubri Shakeel, had further sent all complaints to the Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University. “These complaints/representations are being transferred to your office as the Chancellor’s Office is not involved in the day-to-day activities/administration of the university. The complaints/representations of Prof (Mrs) Rajesh Gill regarding alleged fraud by the Panjab University administration in the allocation of e-rickshaw contract may be placed before the Syndicate/Senate,” said Shakeel’s letter, dated May 29, to the VC.

Papers were then attached to the agenda of the June 10 meeting of the Syndicate which are expected to be taken up in the meeting slated for July 7. Professor Gill said: “They have attached all letters with the agenda, but why has the letter from PMO not been attached?”

Allegations

In her complaint dated January 27 to Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Professor Gill called for an investigation in the e-rickshaw contract by an independent agency. She said there was no provision in the case of default in payment of pending bills of electricity. She questioned why free parking space was given to e-rickshaws, along with free power to the contractor for the initial six months.

She claimed that Registrar Col GS Chadha (retd) was not competent to sign the contract agreement without the approval of the governing bodies, which was a violation of the CVC guidelines as well as the PU Accounts Manual. She claimed that the agreement couldn’t be cancelled by the PU and raised objections over appointing a sub-contractor to run e-rickshaws.

She also added that there was no explicit clause as to who would bear the expenditure on the routine upkeep, including cleaning, repair or maintenance of parking spaces, parking points, battery shed and office space provided to the contractor and sub-contractor for free.

The VPO had called for a status report from the PU after Prof Gill had complained and on the basis of that, it was conveyed to her on April 27 that there was no substance in her allegations. She was told that after the six months trial period, the contractor had been paying the power tariff. It was also conveyed that the university had neither given allotment of any land to the contractor nor had mortgaged any property or land as alleged in the complaint. The university reserved the right to terminate the contract by serving a notice on contractor for any breach of the contractual obligations after a notice period of 90 days, depending on the violation of terms and conditions.

Shakeel concludes that all rules, as per the Accounts Manual, have been followed.

Prof Gill described the reply as “carelessness or lack of knowledge, lethargy, non-applicaton of mind or encouragement to corruption”, in her letter dated May 5 to the Vice-President.

PU Registrar Col GS Chadha (retd) said: “We have added all communication received from the Vice-President’s Office without any addition or deletion. We have replied to all the allegations para-wise.”