Thursday, May 6, 2010

Fazilka Municipal Council hogs limelight for wrong reasons

Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Fazilka, May 5
The local Municipal Council (MC) has again hogged the limelight for wrong reasons. First, it courted controversy when its 58 acres of prime land was allegedly sold for a song, which was later saved with the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. And now, the floating of tenders by the authorities concerned after the execution of the same works has stirred another controversy.

A senior municipal councillor alleged that these tenders were floated on February 11 this year and received despite the local bodies authorities having specially asked the MC authorities not to do so. Even execution of some works was allowed to start by a section of contractors without opening the same.

Taking serious note of this allegation, C. Roul, Principal Secretary, Local

Self-government, Punjab, has ordered an inquiry into the same and asked Jaskiran Singh, Deputy Director, Local Bodies, Ferozepur, to conduct the same: "We will not spare any one who is found involved in this kind of bungling," pointed out Roul while talking to TNS today.

"I have summoned the record of the MC. The inquiry has been started and it will be completed at the earliest," said Jaskiran Singh.

A controversy surfaced in connection with the floating of tenders of some specific works much after the execution of the same. Though MC authorities denied having done such a thing, verbal complaints were received by the higher local bodies department in that connection.

Even a section of people, who were directly or indirectly connected with MC matters, lodged verbal complaints to state local bodies authorities that some favourites of those, who matter most in the corridors of power, had been allotted the execution of various development works, without floating tenders for inviting the bids for the same.

While Anil Kumar Sethi, president, MC denied the allegations that tenders were floated after the execution of different works, Tilak Raj Verma, Executive Officer (EO), said that payment to those civil works contractors, who had executed certain works without the prior permission and work order of the MC authorities, would not be made.

Satinder Singh Savi, former vice-president, MC, while alleging that this thing had brought a bad name to the local MC, demanded that criminal proceedings must be launched against those officials of the MC and civil works contractors, who were involved in this scam, running into lakhs of rupees.

He demanded that fresh tenders by fulfilling all the requirements must be floated and all the contractors must be allowed to participate in the same for competitive bidding. He added that he had been raising his voice against corruption as per the direction of his leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab.

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