After Patiala, Batala MC floats tenders for completed projects

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Batala, June 20

First, the Patiala Municipal Corporation tried to swindle public money by advertising tenders for already completed works and now the Batala Municipal Committee has invited tenders for projects finished long ago.

Recently in a sudden development, the Local Bodies Department had replaced Executive Officer (EO) Manmohan Singh Randhawa with Bhupinder Singh.

Minutes after assuming office, the new EO cancelled tenders floated by the MC worth Rs 28.70 crore, a development which made the MC president, Naresh Majahan, livid. Mahajan immediately asked for the transfer of Bhupinder Singh for violating government guidelines because “the new EO had absolutely no powers to interfere in the tendering process.”

Interestingly, Mahajan, a BJP man, had been elevated to the post of the MC chief with the vote of the then Congress MLA, Ashwani Sekhri, after there was a tie in the 35-member House.

Bhupinder Singh has now ordered officials to give him a list of development works for which tenders have been floated. “Tenders have been invited for 343 development projects. A day after I annulled the tenders, I went to various parts of the city to inspect the works mentioned in the tenders. Twenty out of the 35 works have been completed. Still, tenders for these have been called again. I have now ordered officials of the engineering branch to tell me the truth or face the consequences. I will not let public money go down the drain. I am preparing a report which will be sent to the Local Bodies head office in Chandigarh,” said Bhupinder Singh.

He added that the MC could not call for fresh tenders as it owed contractors Rs 2.5 crore. “The MC has violated not just one but several rules. I am going to mention this in my report,” said the EO.

Mahajan, however, refuted the EO’s claims. “The works already done fall under a different head. The fresh tenders do not cover any development initiatives which have already been completed. The EO is working under the pressure from some Congress bigwigs. As per rules, he has no powers to put on hold the tendering process,” he said.

Sources said ever since the BJP took over the MC House, things had not been going on smoothly and allegations of corruption had regularly been surfacing against both MC officials and councillors.

In December last year, the MC had invited tenders for setting up LED streetlights at a cost of Rs.44.30 lakh on the road leading from Rashtriya Foundries on the Amritsar road to the new bypass traffic intersection. However, it later surfaced that the LEDs were already functioning, forcing the Deputy Director (Local Bodies) to order an inquiry.

MC CHIEF UPSET 

• Minutes after assuming office, new Executive Officer Bhupinder Singh cancelled tenders floated by the MC worth Rs 28.70 crore
• Thereafter, MC president Naresh Majahan demanded Singh’s transfer for violating government guidelines, saying ‘the new EO had absolutely no powers to interfere in the tendering process’