Chandigarh Tribune: Ludhiana: Friday,
October 14, 2016.
Information
obtained about incomplete and suspicious record of No Objection Certificate
(NOC), installation charges and annual renewal fee charges from PIO, Municipal
Council, Khanna, under the Right to Information Act (RTI), indicates a
high-level mobile tower scam in the city.
The MC
authorities had not complied with the terms and conditions mentioned in the
permission/NOC given to different companies for installation of telecom mobile
towers in the area. More than half of the NOCs did not contain proper
location/site of the mobile tower which could imply that the NOCs could have
been issued with a pre-planned intention to complicate the verification of the
site of the tower.
PD Bansal,
president, Lok Sewa Club, an NGO, said in his press statement that the
Municipal Council, Khanna, had permitted 78 mobile towers in the area as per
the information provided by the PIO, Khanna, under the RTI Act. In all, 67
photocopies of NOCs were provided against 78 mobile towers under the
information obtained under the RTI Act. However, only 38 NOCs showed proper
site/location of the tower and the rest did not possess any proper
location/site of the tower. This indicates that many mobile towers may have
been erected in the area without obtaining the NOCs.
The NOCs
given to the companies before 2014 indicate that a company is bound to deposit
Rs 5,000 as annual renewal fee before April 30 every year and the NOCs given to
the companies after 2014 clarify that a company is bound to deposit Rs 50,000
as one-time installation charge and Rs 10,000 as annual renewal fee per tower,
per year, before April 30.
Bansal said
for 78 towers, only 106 pages of cash receipt photocopies provided under the
RTI information proved that the authorities had not received installation
charges and annual renewal fee from the companies as per rules because the
number of receipts should be much more for 78 mobile towers. He said the
available record of cash receipts indicated that telecom companies may have
benefitted by the MC authorities causing a huge financial loss to the
government exchequer.
Bansal said
the matter would be represented before the Director, Vigilance Bureau, Punjab,
for a thorough investigation of the NOCs, installation charges and annual
renewal fee record, so that the erring authorities/employees/telecom companies
may be brought to book.
As per the
information provided by PIO, mobile towers had been permitted by the department
within the jurisdiction of MC, Khanna and the copies of NOCs for the remaining
40 mobile towers were not available in the record. The PIO also provided 106
pages of cash receipt photocopies in connection with installation charges and
annual renewal fee with comments that the department did not possess any more
receipts.
When
Charanjit Singh, Executive Officer, Khanna, was contacted in this regard, he
said he would enquire into the matter and act as per law if any irregularity
was found.
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