Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday, May 01, 2018.
More
irregularities in the recruitment of 17 employees by the Nagpur Municipal
Corporation (NMC) in 1997 have come to fore.
The files
regarding details of the irregularities have gone missing, the NMC said in a
RTI reply to former corporator Raman Paigwar. Consequently, the state
information commissioner (Nagpur) Dilip Dharurkar has directed the civic body
to file an FIR with the police.
Paigwar had
sought information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act about the file of
criminal prosecution against 18 members of selection panel based on the inquiry
committee report. He also sought to know why only one member of then recruitment
committee chairman Kishore Dorle was prosecuted when other members of the
committee were also found guilty.
The civic
administration failed to furnish details sought by Paigwar, and instead,
informed him that the files have gone missing. He then approached Dharurkar. On
February 21, Dharurkar had directed NMC to either provide information sought by
Paigwar or file an FIR.
“The Adtani
inquiry report prepared in 2002 was available,” Paigwar said, and questioned
how the action proposed on the findings of the inquiry report against the 18
selection committee members was not taken.
So far, NMC
has made no efforts to either trace the missing files or file a police complaint,
admitted a senior civic official.
Instead,
during the April 20 general body meeting, the BJP-ruled NMC okayed the proposal
to reinstate 17 employees Subhash Ghate, Ramesh Bawankar, Ashok Deogade, Arun
Khopde, Vijay Hatwar, Yusuf Yaqub, Deepak Potphode, Prakash Barde, Ganpat
Barahate, Gangadhar Bhiwgade, Durga Tahliyani, Shalu Khopde, Ratnakar Dhote,
Jeevak Shamkule, Vinayak Pendke, Suresh Barwe and Vinod Sonone (who passed away
in 2015).
These
employees were earlier dismissed for being appointed despite irregularities in
recruitment process by the high court.
The inquiry
conducted by then additional municipal commissioner MM Adtani pointed out that
then corporators Krishna Khopde and Nana Shamkule (both are now members of
legislative assembly) had prima facie selected and appointed their relatives.
It also found
that around six officers (then acting deputy municipal commissioner RZ
Siddiqui, municipal secretary PB Tilgule, then assistant superintendent PN
Ambhore, acting assistant superintendent HD Londhe, acting assistant
superintendent AA Pipurde and acting superintendent G M Tembhekar) had alleged
involvement in irregularities and dereliction of duty.
“But no stern
action was initiated against the officials involved in the recruitment scam,”
said Paigwar.
In his
report, Adtani had pointed out that it was the duty of these six senior NMC
officials to point out irregularities to the commissioner. He also listed other
irregularities such as no signatures of selection committee members on the list
of the recruited candidatesm barring the signature of then mayor Kishore Dorle.
“But they did not do so,” the report stated.
The former
mayor was also booked under section 397 of IPC and hearing against him was
underway in the district court. The next hearing is scheduled on May 8.
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