MMC accounts officer divested of charge for ‘exposing irregularities’

Meerut: An accounts officer in the Meerut Municipal Corporation (MMC), seems to have paid the price for allegedly exposing glaring irregularities in the functioning of the Meerut Municipal Corporation (MMC).
Accounts officer Manoj Tripathi was divested of the charge by municipal commissioner SK Dubey recently.
The move followed after a complaint was filed by finance controller Moinuddin, chief executive engineer Kulbhushan Varshney and tax assessment officer Dinesh Yadav against Tripathi.
Lodging a strong protest against the commissioner’s order, chief auditor Sachchidanand Tripathi stated, “The power to take away charge of the accounts officer vests with the state government only.”
Tripathi, who is serving a probation period of two years, was appointed at the MMC 10 months ago. He will now undergo training for the remaining period of 14 months under various wings of the MMC, including health, engineering, finance controller and tax assessment officer.
Tripathi had highlighted the misuse of a landline telephone installed at the residence of tax assessment officer, Dinesh Yadav, who was not entitled to use the facility. He had also objected over the unauthorized use of 14 MMC vehicles by officials, incurring fuel bills of over Rs 1.67 lakh, which would be paid by the civic body.
In a letter written to MMC mayor Harikant Ahaluvaliya, the chief auditor, alleged, “The chief administrative officer of the MMC is using his power against an official who has been exposing irregularities in the civic body’s functioning.”
“Accounts officer Manoj Tripathi was appointed by the state government but the municipal commissioner does not extract work from him. He was divested from his duties on a complaint filed by finance controller Moinuddin, chief executive engineer Kulbhushan Varshney and tax assessment officer Dinesh Yadav, who stated that he did not have sufficient knowledge of government service and needed training. While the finance controller didn’t produce any record in the past five years to conduct an audit, chief executive engineer forwarded an over budget proposal for release of grant and the tax assessment officer has committed several irregularities,” the chief auditor further alleged.
Citing an example where the Supreme Court had described duties of the state, the chief auditor stated, “In a case of Vijay Shankar Pandey v/s union of India, the court had described the duties of the state and stated that the Constitution declares India as a ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’. The requirement of such a democratic republic is that every action of the state is to be informed with reason. State is not hierarchy of regressively genuflecting coterie of bureaucracy. But this ruling is not being followed in the MMC.”