Mohali Dy Mayor smells fuel scam; Alleges bills raised for petrol used in bush cutters while work was outsourced

The Tribune: Mohali: Tuesday, 10 March 2020.

Deputy Mayor Manjit Singh Sethi has unearthed a scam in the local Municipal Corporation (MC) by detecting bogus bills of petrol consumption for bush cutting machines whereas the civic body had outsourced the work.

Sethi said, “I have observed that the MC has 10 bush cutting machines operated on petrol and three serve master attached to a tractor for grass cutting. It is discovered through bills that 50 litre of petrol was being used on daily basis to run 10 bush cutting machines whereas the entire process of bush cutting and grass cutting has been outsourced by the MC for the past many years.”

While unearthing a scam, Sethi alleged that he found that the original inquiry report in the alleged fudged fuel consumption for bush cutters was tampered with, adding that some of the pages were missing in the report submitted to the government. He said the scam had come to the fore after he sought a copy of the report submitted to the local bodies department under the RTI Act. He said officials allegedly involved in the scam had removed 14 pages in the 42-page inquiry report and added pages already-included in the report to make it a 42-page document.

Sethi said officials had tried to befool him by providing a tampered copy of the report. He said he already had a copy of the original report and after comparing both the reports, it was found that some pages with critical report were missing.

He alleged that the authorities concerned tried to shield the officials involved in the alleged fuel scam, which caused loss to the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 4,500 per day for two years.

The Deputy Mayor, while demanding a fair and unbiased inquiry into the case, said erring officials must be made accountable. He said he had also raised the issue before the MC House but the matter was subdued by Mayor Kulwant Singh and the then MC Commissioner, Bhupinder Singh, stating that they would get rectification done. He said he had also written to the Mayor and the then Commissioner seeking reasons of the irregularity detected by him.

He said 50 litre of petrol was being used daily and added that as the price of the fuel was then priced at Rs 86.78 per litre in Mohali, the bills were drawn at Rs 4,500 per day. He said when he questioned the officials concerned verbally, they reported that in some areas, the bush cutting contract had not been renewed this year and these machines were being used there.

Inquiry report tampered with, alleges Sethi

Deputy Mayor Manjit Singh Sethi alleged that the original inquiry report in the alleged fudged fuel consumption for bush cutters was tampered with. He said officials allegedly involved in the scam had removed 14 pages from the 42-page inquiry report submitted to the government and added pages already-included in the report to make it a 42-page document.