Hindustan Times: Ludhiana: Thursday, November 13, 2014.
The municipal
corporation (MC) of Ludhiana has served show-cause notices to a number of
officials for accepting alleged fraudulent solvency certificates by firms that
were allotted tenders for construction of flats for slum-dwellers. Questions
over the nexus between the contractors and the MC were raised by a city
resident who had alleged that tenders were allotted without verifying the
documents properly.
Solvency
certificate is issued by a bank declaring the financial status of a firm.
Moreover, while making a financial bid, it is necessary for firms to produce
the latest certificate in the name of the agency that is issuing tenders.
According to
sources, notices were issued to six officials on Tuesday.
Following a
complaint made by resident Kuldeep Singh Khaira, the MC served these notices.
Earlier, Khaira had also filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court
in 2012, following which the court directed the local bodies department to pass
reasoned order. However, when no action was taken by the authorities, he then
filed a contempt petition.
The project
for construction of 4,500 flats in Dhandari, Giaspura and Mundian under the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was started in 2008.
After getting
information under the Right to Information (RTI), Khaira alleged that the work
for construction of flats was awarded to different firms without proper
verification of credentials of the solvency certificates.
The
information obtained under the RTI had revealed that a firm had submitted a
photocopy of the solvency certificate of `5 crore that was obtained by it for
the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) for other
construction work.
Khaira had
also raised doubt over the solvency certificates that were submitted by two
other firms.
“I recently
wrote to the secretary, department of local government, that no action has been
taken into the matter as the MC has been directed to fix the responsibility of
the officers concerned who have accepted the wrong solvency certificates and
take action against the contractors as per law,” he said.
Meanwhile, an
MC official claimed that it was a minor matter and there was nothing like any
malpractice.
MC’s
additional commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said, “Show-cause notices have been
issued to the officials concerned, but I will be able to comment only after
getting reply from these officials.”
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