Panipat: Minister orders suspension of project officer over bribery charge

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, July 19

Minister of State for Urban Local Bodies (ULB) Subhash Sudha on Thursday directed ULB department officials to suspend the city project officer (CPO) in the Panipat Municipal Corporation (MC) after receiving complaints against him during the ‘Jan Samwad’ programme held in PWD rest house here today. ULB Minister Subhash Sudha was on Panipat visit as per the programme scheduled by the BJP.

Sudha held a Jan Samwad programme at the first floor of the PWD rest house here, but a large number of people turned up on the occasion due to which they had to make changes in the venue.

As per sources, Sudha received complaints against the city project officer Rakesh Kadyan for demanding bribe from the people for passing their loans under government schemes. Taking a stringent note over it, the minister directed to suspend him immediately.

Although the people had to face a lot of problems to reach out to Sudha due to heavy security at the gate of ‘VIP Suite’ in the rest house, where the Sudha, along with Panipat BJP president Dushyant Bhatt, MLA Pramod Vij, former Mayor Avneet Kaur, former councillors Lokesh Nagroo, Ravinder Bhatia were listening to the problems of the public.

Maximum people reached with complaints regarding property IDs and others.

A delegation of residents of Model Town also reached there and demanded to stop the construction of a divider. The MC had allotted the tender for widening and construction of the road from Aneja petrol pump to Guru Teg Bahadur Colony, amounting to Rs 1.60 crore in February with special approval of former CM Manohar Lal Khattar.

As per the tender, the four-lane road would be constructed with a divider in the middle of the road. Local residents have been opposing its construction. Harish Mutneja, a resident, said almost all residents were opposing the construction, but MLA Pramod Vij, who also lives on the same road, was adamant to construct this divider. He said after construction of the divider, the road would be congested badly and the people would have to face a lot of problems. They also met Vij to raise their concerns several times. Today, they came to meet the minister. A complaint signed by around 100 persons has been given to the ULB minister, he said.

Sudha, while interacting with the mediapersons said the CPO has been directed to suspend immediately as complaints of involvement in corruption were received against him. He further said he came to Panipat after the BJP assigned duties to him.

Warning the officials, the minister said the officials or employees involved in corrupt practices would not be spared at any cost. The minister further said the matter of the divider’s construction in Model Town had been put forth and he also spoke to Vij about it. The matter would be resolved soon, he assured.