Two EOs suspended for anomalies in approvals
Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 28
In a scam involving large-scale illegal construction and evasion of licence fee by private promoter Veteran Builders and Promoters, Zirakpur, Punjab’s Local Government Department on Tuesday suspended two Executive Officers (EO).
A department probe revealed series anomalies in sanctioning and monitoring of the firm’s project by the two EOs during their posting in Zirakpur, leading to evasion of external development charges (EDC), change of land use (CLU) and other levies amounting to Rs 3.80 crore.
To allegedly benefit the builder, CLU charges were calculated on the basis of wrong categorisation of the project location. “Against charging Rs 26.5 lakh per acre for the CLU, Rs 22.5 lakh per acre was levied. The overall loss to the state exchequer could be much more”, said a government functionary.
The suspension orders of Sukhjinder Singh Sidhu, EO, Zirakpur Municipal Council, and Girish Verma, earlier posted as EO, Zirakpur, were issued by Additional Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar. Verma is now EO, Nagar Panchayat, Sangat (Bathinda).
The record submitted by the Deputy Director, Patiala, during the department probe revealed that the builder had encroached upon Railway land, covering a 50-feet-wide strip. Against the approval of seven bighas and 10 biswas (approx 1.5 acres), construction was afoot on about five acres.
It was also revealed that while clearing the CLU and approving building plans, the rail track and Railways land was not taken on record, even after clear-cut observations by the Senior Town Planner (STP), Patiala. The promoter started construction without approval of the layout plan in violation of building bylaws. At least 35 building plans in the illegal colony were sanctioned by the EO, Zirakpur.
Sources said more projects were under the scanner of the Local Government. Despite instructions to the field staff to keep a watch on builders illegally selling independent floors even though they had approval for only plotted development with a fixed floor area ratio (FAR), the illegal activity continued.
