Probes against MC staff go nowhere

LUDHIANA: The inefficiency of the Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana is evident from the fact that pending enquiries have not yet reached their conclusion, even as some tainted officials have passed away. From among 59 pending inquiries, two officials have died and four have retired.
The enquiries were marked years ago, some of them way back in 1998, against officials who were found involved in unscrupulous activities.A few officials who were caught red-handed by the vigilance department resumed duties after coming out of jail, though inquiries were pending against them. Recently, Surinder Singh Bindra was caught red-handed by the vigilance department while taking a bribe. He worked at MC's Zone A office in the house tax branch. Two other erring officials against whom enquiries were marked Gurcharan Singh and Krishan Lal are no more.
What points towards MC's inefficiency is the promotion of a few officials, in spite of enquiries marked against them. There are three officials who were promoted despite being under suspicion. An enquiry against BK Gupta who retired from the MC last year is still pending, which raises doubts on the intentions of MC's top officials. Gupta has received all his payments from MC, despite a pending enquiry against him.
There are 22 such enquiries from among the 59 that are still to be solved by officials of the departments concerned. A big question mark hangs on MC's seriousness in taking the enquiries to their logical conclusion, as tainted officials continue to be in service, retired ones draw their end-of-service benefits, and a few even get promoted, despite cases against them.
Such details came out through an RTI application filed by activist Ravi Sharma.
"A time-bound investigation of all these pending enquiries should be done immediately, so that the offenders can be nailed," said Sharma.
A councillor remarked categorically: "The enquiries will never reach their conclusion because of the involvement of high officials behind them. Commissioners keep changing, but no serious action is taken by them. This proves that there will be no end to corruption and illegal activities in the MC." Meanwhile, MC commissioner Shruti Singh commented wryly: "Action against the erring officials is very important."