Jalandhar Improvement Trust EO, two staffers suspended

Jalandhar, April 29

Amid the ongoing upheaval in the working of Jalandhar Improvement Trust, its Executive Officer Parminder Singh Gill and two other staffers on Friday have been placed under suspension with immediate effect.

Panel set up to probe missing files

• A committee has been formed to inquire into the missing files in the JIT office. The members of the panel are: Satinderjit Singh, Superintending Engineer; Vikram Kumar and Jaswant Singh, both Trust engineers; Inderjit Singh, head draftsman, and Pawan Kumar, clerk.

The orders have come from Principal Secretary Local Bodies Vivek Partap Singh. In his orders, Singh has said that action has come after a report of Chief Vigilance Officer pointed to some major discrepancies on the part of the EO and two other staffers — Ashish Kumar, draftsman, JIT, and Anuj Rai, junior assistant, JIT.

The Principal Secretary has said that a chargesheet would be issued to the three officials/employees as per the rule 8 of the Punjab Civil Services Punishment and Appeal Rules. Till the time of suspension, the trio has been asked to report at the Local Bodies headquarters in Chandigarh.

The CVO has reportedly taken action against EO and the JIT employees as they withdrawn an amount of Rs 7 lakh from the Trust account without sanction from the higher authorities.

A recommendation for the suspension of the EO had also been made by Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar-cum-Chairman Jalandhar Improvement Trust Ghanshyam Thori as he had reported that the EO as the administration head had failed to keep a track of all the files of the JIT owing to which the public was getting inconvenienced.

He had said the EO was not able to table the files, which he had been asked to do and had instead said they were in the custody of a Senior Assistant upon being sought by the ex-Chairman. Thori had noted that the EO had failed to comply with his duty to get back all the files from the former Chairman.

He had also taken a strong note of various complaints filed by allottees in the office pointing to irregularities in the Trust. Thori had taken up the entire matter with the Principal Secretary on April 14 and his complaint has reportedly further added weight to the already lodged complaints against the EO.