Corporation initiates an inquiry into two fake sanitary certificates

Chennai: The Chennai corporation has initiated a vigilance inquiry after two fake sanitary certificates issued by the public health department of the civic body surfaced last month.

The scam was unearthed when the public health department at corporation was informed by the assistant health officer (AHO) for Adyar zone about two forged sanitary certificates that surfaced when an inspection was carried out a hostel in Tiruvanmiyur.

Owner of one of the women’s hostels that had a fake certificate said two months ago, the civic body officials informed them that the certificate in their possession was a forged document.

R Mala, owner of Thamarai Women’s Hostel at Pillaiyar Koil Street in Tiruvanmiyur said she had possessed the sanitary certificate through an agent. “In fact, the corporation officials told us during an inspection that the sanitary certificate was fake. They inspected our building following a complaint by a neighbour to the civic body about leakage of water from the building two months ago,” she said. We spent Rs 8,000 to get the certificate through an agent in Velachery, she added. The hostel has applied for registration with the Chennai collectorate based on the fake certificate.

For the year 2019-20, the corporation has issued 210 sanitary certificates for hostels across the city with none being issued in Tiruvottriyur, Madhavaram, and Perungudi zones.

“After we came to know about the forged certificate, we had complained to the orporation. But, we did not lodge any complaint with the police,” Mala added. Now, the hostel has applied for a fresh sanitary certificate, she added.

Corporation sources said the vigilance inquiry will help determine if the act was done with the collusion of officials, however, ward-level officials remained tight-lipped as the inquiry is pending.

“If corporation officials are found involved, departmental action will be initiated against them. However, in case of involvement of touts and brokers, police complaint will be filed,” said an official.

Asked to comment over the issue, Chennai collector A Shanmuga Sundaram said, “Our aim is to first target those hostels that failed to register.” Till April, nearly 1,050 women’s hostels have applied for registration.