Probe panel indicts XEN, SE for dereliction of duty

Tribune News Service
Panchkula, February 14

The local Municipal Corporation (MC) has sacked an engineer, a head draftsman, a junior engineer (JE) and three supervisors in the roundabout beautification scam besides chargesheeting the XEN, the Superintending Engineer (SE), a JE and some other staff members for dereliction of duty under Rule 7 of the MC Act.

A show-cause notice has also been issued to architect Yatendra Mathur asking him as to why he should not be blacklisted. In addition, a show-cause notice has been issued to senior accounts officers and the Joint Director, Audit.

The inquiry committee constituted by the MC submitted its 180-page report on Wednesday evening. Later, municipal engineer Mohinder Dhaaliwal, JE Bhupesh Kumar Chhabra, head draftsman Devendra Kumar and three supervisors were sacked. As per the report, these officials were found careless while supervising the construction of roundabouts and hence chargesheeted under Rule 7.

The committee also held XEN LC Chauhan guilty of dereliction of duty. The report stated that Chauhan was fully responsible for overall supervision of the construction of roundabouts. It was his responsibility to prepare correct estimates and had failed to scrutinise the electrical items. He never investigated the construction work. He had also failed in taking a bank guarantee from the contractor for the work allotted to the latter, the report stated.

Superintending Engineer TL Sharma has also been chargesheeted. However, Sharma said he had not received any letter in this regard.

A show-cause notice has been issued to senior accounts officer and the Joint Director, Audit, as they had been found guilty of forwarding the file for making payment to the contractor without verifying the same. About 32 mistakes have been found in this regard, forcing the authorities to take action in the case.

Meanwhile, the process for recovery of payment from M/s Shakumbari Engineering Works has also been started. On December 28 last year, the MC Administrator had passed orders for stopping the payment to the contractor. The MC till now had paid Rs 1.93 crore to the contractor.

It is pertinent to mention here that the three-member inquiry committee constituted by Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain had submitted its report to her on January 29 stating that the MC overspent about Rs 1 crore on refurbishing roundabouts. The work was allocated to the contractor for Rs 2.84 crore.