It’s official, Mayor, eight others to shell out Rs9,000 each

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 31

Finally, it’s official. The Municipal Corporation will recover the study tour amount from councillors, including the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor, who had taken members of their families along with them on the tour to Chennai, Kolkata and Port Blair last year.

Chandigarh Tribune was first to report on February 22 that the MC had finalised the amount to be recovered from the councillors.

After the report appeared in these columns, former Mayor and Congress councillor Subhash Chawla raised the issue at the MC House meeting today. Replying to Chawla’s question, MC Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh informed the members that he had yesterday approved the file pertaining to the additional amount, which was spent on the stay of the family members during the study tour, to be collected from the councillors concerned.

When Chawla asked how this information got leaked to the media last week, the MC Commissioner said he had sent the file yesterday only, that too in a sealed cover. “I am not aware how the media got the information,” he said. The MC Commissioner made it clear to the councillors that they would have to deposit the additional money spent on "double occupancy" in hotels during the study tour.

The councillors, who had taken their family members along with them, had opted for "double occupancy" in hotels instead of "single occupancy" opted by the other councillors and officials. As there was a difference in the rates of single and double occupancy, the MC was recovering the difference of amount from the councillors, an MC official said.

On the directions of Municipal Commissioner Vivek Partap Singh, the MC has finalised Rs 1,000 (for a single night stay) each to be recovered from the councillors. In the coming days, recovery letters would be issued to the councillors, a senior MC official said.

The civic body would recover the additional expenditure incurred on the family members’ night stay in hotels, which comes out to be Rs 9,000 (for nine nights) each. There were nine councillors, who had taken their families along with them on the tour.

Councillor Satinder Singh, who had first raised the issue of "wastage of public money" on study tours, welcomed the MC’s decision and said in fact, the entire amount of Rs 28 lakh spent on the tour should be recovered from the councillors and officials. A total of 39 members — 19 councillors, the Mayor, six UT and MC officials and 13 members of councillors’ families — had gone on the tour.

Those accompanied by kin

Mayor Poonam Sharma, Deputy Mayor Gurbax Rawat, BJP councillor Satish Kainth, Independent councillor Gurcharan Das Kala and nominated councillors MP Kohli and Babu Lal took their spouses along with them on the tour. Besides, BJP councillor and Leader of the Opposition Arun Sood took along his wife, two children and a niece. BJP councillor Asha Jaiswal took her daughter along with her and also the daughter of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha president. Congress councillor Sheela Devi’s daughter accompanied her on the tour.