Rs 25 lakh 'embezzled' in Samalkha projects

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Panipat, April 22

An alleged embezzlement of Rs 25 lakh has come to fore in two projects — development of a park on railway land and construction of Punjabi Dharamshala in Samalkha by the Municipal Committee (MC) Samalkha.

The projects had been announced by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The bunglings were revealed in an inquiry conducted by the Chief Minister’s flying squad.

The flying squad found the negligence of the former chairperson of the Municipal Committee (MC) Samalkha along with seven MC employees who were found guilty of embezzlement of the funds.

PP Kapoor, an RTI activist in Samalkha, had filed a complaint against corruption in these development projects. Following this, the flying squad conducted the inquiry and found embezzlement of Rs 24.86 lakh in the construction of the park on railway road and of Rs 11,114 in the construction of Punjabi Dharamshala.

As per the report received in an RTI reply, the MC Samalkha had allotted a tender for the construction of a park on 5.5 acres of the railway for Rs 1.5 crore on June 5, 2018, to contractor Satinder Malik, Kapoor said.