After court orders on DC residence auction, 5 officials suspended

JALANDHAR: Having faced embarrassment after orders of a local court to put his official residence on sale to pay off acquisition award to a farmer, the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Jalandhar, Varinder Kumar Sharma, today suspended five officials of the district administration for their negligence in the case.

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 15

Having faced embarrassment after orders of a local court to put his official residence on sale to pay off acquisition award to a farmer, the Deputy Commissioner (DC), Jalandhar, Varinder Kumar Sharma, today suspended five officials of the district administration for their negligence in the case.

The DC said five officials — kanungo Parminder Kumar, patwari Iqbal Singh, patwari Garib Das, naib special kanungo Vijay Kumar and special kanungo Vijay Kumar — had been suspended for grave lapse in performing their duties. He said these officials, in connivance with some persons, had misrepresented the facts to the local court and the district administration due to which the situation pertaining to the auction of the official residence of the DC arose.

The matter pertains to a lapse on part of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust for delay in payment of Rs 7 crore to an 80-year-old farmer Ajit Singh for a 28-year-old acquisition done for developing Transport Nagar. The matter had been under litigation for a long time after which the enhancement of the acquisition award had been ordered by the Supreme Court.

Sharma said these officials also acted beyond the orders of the court. The court orders were for the attachment and auction of property in Reru village in Jalandhar district. But these officials for their own selfish motives or out of carelessness included the properties of the Jalandhar bus stand and Government School on Ladowali Road along with the DC’s residence for attaching and auctioning.

The DC said there was a serious lapse on part of these officials in performing their duties. He said, “Had these officials performed their duty efficiently, a major embarrassment caused to the administration could have been avoided.”

Sharma said such careless and mala fide attitude was unwarranted and undesirable which could not be tolerated at any cost, adding that he had initiated strict departmental action against these officials. A detailed charge-sheet had also been ordered against the officials.