Vigilance grills F’bad civic body ex-Commissioner

Tribune News Service

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad, October 12

In the ongoing probe into the Rs 200-crore alleged scam in the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF), the Vigilance Department today interrogated Anita Yadav, former Commissioner of the MCF, for about two hours.

She is the second IAS officer who has been questioned after permission in this regard was granted by the state government. Mohammed Shayin, IAS officer and former Commissioner of the civic body, had appeared before the Vigilance on Tuesday.

While the questioning was done in the office of the Vigilance Department in Sector 77 here, sources revealed that Yadav claimed that “she was not involved in any kind of irregularity, as the files which she received had been verified by officials at various stages and no scam had taken place at the level of her position”. She is reported to have maintained her stance despite being told by the probing officials how an official working as head of the department needed to be vigilant about the scope of irregularities involving payments. Yadav worked as Commissioner, MCF, between January 9, 2019 and September 16, 2019.

Earlier, the Vigilance on Tuesday, put similar questions before Mohammed Shayin, who was Commissioner between January 18 , 2018 and December 10, 2018. He is also reported to have claimed that no irregularity took place at his level, as there were departments of engineering, audit and accounts to prepare and verify the bills, before these were signed.

The third IAS officer (former Commissioner, MCF) is Sonal Goel, who served at this post two times. While she was Commissioner for one year (from August 6, 2016, and August 14, 2017), she also held the post between September 19, 2019, and January 1, 2020. As she failed to appear before the Vigilance on Monday, she has been asked to be present here on October 14, according to sources. Goel, who had approached the High Court for relief, was told to cooperate with the agency in the probe, it is reported.

65 projects under scanner

The probe is expected to scan over 65 projects of development of civic infrastructure taken up between 2016 and 2020 in which enhancement and alleged fake bills were generated and passed, making the alleged scam touch an amount of Rs 200 crore

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