Narnaul MC chief in the dock

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 1

The Haryana Government has recommended action against Anjana Aggarwal, president of the Municipal Council, Narnaul, for irregularities and fraudulent deeds pointed out by an inquiry officer.

An official spokesman said nine of the 12 charges levelled against her stood proved as per the inquiry officer’s report. She was suspended from the post in June 2014. A show-cause notice would now be issued to her.

Elaborating on the charges proved in the report, he said Anjana Aggarwal misused Section 35 of the 1973 Act, which provided extraordinary powers for works in the case of natural calamity or acute public inconvenience. She had got done more than 500 development works in 2013, misusing provisions of Section 35 and none of the work was allotted through tenders.

Similarly, she issued NoCs in property transfer cases bearing her signatures only. However, the signatures of Junior Engineer or Municipal Engineer or Building Inspector or Executive Officer of the Council were also required. In many cases, where the building inspector reported that the property was unauthorised and the NoC could not be issued, she issued the NoC under her signatures.

She was also involved in fraudulently changing the amount of cheques by adding ‘1’ in front of the amount.She issued an NoC under her signatures without report of any other officer, where the purchaser was her husband. Similarly, she had made the payment of Rs.7,10,449 twice for the same work to a contractor. There was no date mentioned on vouchers and no separate entry on contingent bills had been made.

He said she refused to sign the payment bills of a contractor submitted on the completion of works and also demanded a bribe in lieu of payment. Various contractors had submitted complaints or affidavits regarding the withholding of payments. A video and audio footage showed her husband threatening officials, proving that he misused his position being the MC president’s husband, the spokesman said.