Navjot Singh Sidhu cracks whip on corruption in MC, 1 STP dismissed, 3 officers demoted
The Punjab Government led by the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh has adopted zero tolerance approach towards the corrupt practices and it is in keeping with this ideology that the Local Government Minister, Punjab, Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu has cracked down on corruption with heavy hand in a matter pertaining to the malpractices with regard to the galiara project in Amritsar. In a statement here today, a spokesman of the department said that 33 officials of the corporation cadre, who remained posted at Municipal Corporation Amritsar and dealt with issues regarding galiara project were chargesheeted for dereliction of duty and willful violation of the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act and Rules framed there under Rule 8 of the Punjab Civil Services (Punishment & Appeals) Rules. The enquiry officer submitted its report on 27-1-2016 as per which charges couldn’t be proven against 20 officials while the rest were found guilty. The enquiry was conducted in pursuant to the directions of the Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court in CWP 14900 of 2010 alleging vast amount of the violations of building bye-laws taking place concerning above mentioned project with the unauthorized conversion of residential buildings into hotels, serais and guest houses in and around the area of galiara in the holy city without seeking permission from the competent authority and without paying conversion charges thus causing a colossal loss to the departmental exchequer. Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu decided to give personal hearing to all concerned officials for reviewing/enhancement of punishment commensurate with their misconduct. During the personal hearing, the charged officials were unable to refute charges of dereliction of duty. So, reviewing the case in its entirety and examining the full record and pondering over the submissions of the charged officials, the minister has decided to impose punishment of dismissal from service in case of Hemant Batra, the then STP Amritsar. According to the spokesman, this has been done to send a strong message to all to discharge their duties in an honest, transparent manner with adherence to the rules in letter and spirit.
