Patiala: Even as the local bodies’ department chief vigilance officer S S Manik on Wednesday sent a team to verify ‘irregularities’ in the execution of some Patiala municipal corporation projects, the civic body refuted all charges.
A team headed by executive engineer (XEN) Ranjit Singh from the local bodies’ department in Chandigarh visited the officials and the private residence of Patiala mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu, who is on a 15-day trip to the US and is scheduled to return next week. They also went to the
Patiala MC office to collect records related to the works allegedly undertaken by the civic body without following rules and regulations.
Meanwhile, Patiala municipal commissioner G S Khaira said a section of media had reported that some works had been executed without floating tenders, which was totally incorrect. Khaira said they had received proposals for six works, including installing a neon signboard on top of the Patiala MC building, plantation and wooden work inside the official residence of the mayor, installing a pollution monitoring station at the local garbage dump, laying of tile road inside the mayor’s residence and renovation of auditorium of the PMC.
He said after the Patiala MC House passed resolutions related to these works, tenders were floated recently and none of these works was executed without following the due procedure.
He said after the matter was brought to his notice, he had immediately asked his officials to submit a written report regarding the allegations along with the pictures of the spots where these works were to be executed. He said, “Once I have everything on record, I will put the same before the state government and also in the public domain as the allegations have caused unnecessary controversy.”
He said the vigilance team that visited the city on Wednesday had also met him and expressed its satisfaction.
The XEN, who led the CVO team, said they had visited the officials and private residence of the mayor and collected records from the building of the Patiala MC. Without, giving the details of their findings, he said they would submit a report to the officer at Chandigarh.
Mayor Bittu could not be contacted for his comments.