Ludhiana: RTI activists sits on protest as MC plumber caught taking bribe

LUDHIANA: A city-based RTI activist, Rohit Sabharwal, sat on a protest outside MC commissioner’s office in zone D on Thursday while alleging rampant charges of corruption among the officials of the civic body. He even threatened to commit suicide at the MC office by consuming phenyl.
Earlier in the morning he claimed to have caught a registered plumber of the MC while taking Rs 1,000 bribe for clearing files of water supply connection of his plots.He claimed that there was a nexus between lower and higher-level officials and if employees were demanding bribe from an activist then the condition of a common man could be well imagined.
Describing the issue, Sabharwal said, “I had applied for water supply connections for two plots and also paid around Rs 20,000 to the civic body as fee for those connections. But my driver received a call from a plumber of the MC who asked him to pay Rs 1,000 more for preparing the file.” He said he also talked to that plumber and told him that he was an RTI activist.
He said on Thursday, he was first called at zone D office and then he was asked to reach Kitchlu Nagar by that plumber for paying the money. Sabharwal claimed that he took Rs 1,000 from his driver by saying that it was the fee for preparing the files.
Sabharwal also went live at Facebook to show things going on in the civic body. He asked the plumber to explain why he was asking for Rs 1,000 more when they had cleared all charges for the connection. On this, the plumber apologised to the activist and also returned the money he had taken from the driver of the activist.
Sabharwal shared that he also moved the MC zone D office for filing a complaint against the plumber. First he met the superintending engineer of operation and maintenance cell Ravinder Garg and then he sat on protest outside the commissioner officer. He alleged that there was rampant corruption in the MC and officials from bottom to top were involved in all this because without knowledge of employees one could not do such things.
Later on, Garg and MTP SS Bindra asked him to end his protest, saying that suitable action would be taken against the employee. Garg said, “As soon as the matter came to light I have already recommended action against the plumber so that his registration with MC could be cancelled.”