Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta sends notices to 15 officers, including 3 IAS

BHOPAL/INDORE: The Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta has issued notices to 15 officials, including the Ujjain district collector and two other IAS officers, in a complaint related to alleged financial irregularities in construction of Mahakal Lok corridor.Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of this corridor, built at a cost of Rs 316 crore, on October 11. The officers are accused of misusing their official position and giving financial benefits to a contractor. The Lokayukta has asked them to respond by October 28.The Lokayukta notice to these officers says that the allegations made by the complainant have been found to be correct during initial investigation.Sources in the agency told TOI that the corridor’s parking lot is of substandard quality and the contractors had raised “undue bills”, which were allegedly cleared by the authorities without proper verification.Notices have been served on Ujjain collector and chairman of Ujjain Smart City Ltd, IAS officer Asheesh Singh, former executive director of Ujjain Smart City, IAS officer Kshitij Singhal, and former municipal commissioner Anshul Gupta. The others served notices are nominated directors of Ujjain Smart City Ltd Sojan Singh Rawat and Deepak Ratnawat, independent director Srinivas Narasimha Rao Pandurangi, chief operating officer of Smart City Ashish Pathak, former CEO Jitendra Singh Chauhan, chief financial officer Juwan Singh Tomar, engineer Dharmendra Verma, then executive engineer Fariduddin Qureshi, assistant engineers Kamalkant Saxena and Akash Singh, PDMC Ujjain Smart City team leader Sanjay Shakya and junior engineer Tarun Soni.Collector Asheesh Singh didn’t respond to calls for his comment. Ashish Pathak said: “I am not aware of any such notice issued by Lokayukta. I am in Rajkot. I will look into the matter when I return.” The other junior officers, including Kamalkant Saxena, said they are not aware of the notice. The Mahakal Lok Corridor development work is being carried out by Ujjain Smart City Ltd. The entire project is estimated at Rs 856 crore and the second phase is due to start.