Completion certificates issued since Jan cancelled in Zirakpur

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22

In a decisive action against unscrupulous private builders, the Local Government Department has cancelled all partial and completion certificates issued to residential-cum-commercial projects in Zirakpur since January.

Affecting over a dozen projects, top departmental functionaries found that all such certificates have been illegally issued (since January 28) by the Zirakpur MC.

The Additional Chief Secretary, Local Government, Sanjay Kumar has already placed Zirakpur Executive Officer (EO) Manvir Gill under suspension three days ago.

A probe by the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the department revealed that despite instructions from Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra that technical approval for completion/occupation certificates had to be given at the level of the government, the EO continued to issue certificates illegally. Pointing to a larger builder-official-politician nexus, the certificates issued to incomplete projects by the Zirakpur MC were meant to be used by builders to stop payment of assured monthly returns to their investors.