Vigilance warns Local Bodies Dept

LUDHIANA: The Local Government Department is under fire from the Vigilance Bureau (VB) of Punjab Police for its failure to take action against employees and officials of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) who were indicted in a Vigilance probe in 2015 for their lapses and suspected role in violations committed by shop-cum-flat (SCF) owners in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar colony here.

Most SCFs in E Block of SBS Nagar have reportedly done illegal change of land use. file photo

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, December 12

The Local Government Department is under fire from the Vigilance Bureau (VB) of Punjab Police for its failure to take action against employees and officials of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) who were indicted in a Vigilance probe in 2015 for their lapses and suspected role in violations committed by shop-cum-flat (SCF) owners in the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar colony here.

After sending five reminders to the Local Government Department for follow-up action against the guilty employees/officials during February 2017 to November 2018, the VB has now issued a warning letter, seeking date-bound response, to the Principal Secretary, Local Government.

In the demi-official letter (40/139/14-4/1367714 dated December 6, 2018), marked as ‘warning and date-bound’ and issued by the Vigilance-1 branch of the VB, it has been reiterated that no action had been taken till now against guilty employees and officials of LIT who were indicted on five counts in the report of Vigilance enquiry submitted to the Local Government Department on October 6, 2015. A copy of the said letter has also been marked to the Chief Director of Vigilance Bureau who had sought status of action taken on the inquiry report (vide his office letter no. 41086/VB/S-10 of November 9, 2018).

It was on a complaint lodged by Rohit Sabharwal, president of Council of RTI Activists, that the VB had launched a probe into the grave violations of approved standard design, illegal change of land use and other irregularities against owners of SCFs in E-Block of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. During the course of inquiry, the VB had also probed the dubious role of the field staff and supervisory officials of the LIT who had either colluded or failed to check the violations and take suitable action against the owners.

In its report, the VB had found substantial evidence that the SCF owners had made illegal change of land use by converting residential portion into commercial and had also made non-compoundable violations in construction and approved standard design as also clubbing two or more SCFs together to make them a single unit.

It was also proved that many SCF owners were making unauthorised use of electricity by obtaining connections in commercial establishments under the domestic supply (DS) category.