Undeterred by the protests and criticism from various quarters for cracking whip on State’s babudom, Punjab local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday ordered to chargesheet the four Superintending Engineers (SEs) he suspended in an alleged multi-crore scam hovering around the floating of tenders for municipal works.
Sidhu, taking forward his war against corruption, once again issued directions to charge-sheet three IAS officers — Sonali Giri, GS Khera and Ghanshyam Thori — and put up on a separate file which is to be sent to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) for sanction.
“Sidhu has ordered that charge-sheet against suspended SEs — PK Goel, Kulwinder Singh, Pawan Sharma and Dharam Singh — may be drawn up and issued; and a detailed investigation into all tenders allotted under Urban Mission may be undertaken with reference to issues raised by the AG in his comment and prima facie evidence available from CVOs report,” said the spokesperson.
“As per the directions of the local Government Minister, the Chief Vigilance Officer, local Government carried out a sample inspection of files of civil or work orders for Municipal Corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, ludhiana and Bathinda. After examining 1,000 files pertaining to civil work or work orders, he observed that over half the work orders were placed based on a single bid and nearly 200 work orders were placed based on two bids. Total amount of so awarded contracts is approximately Rs 500 crore,” said the spokesperson.
Spokesperson added that taking strong note, Sidhu had suspended four SEs pending departmental enquiry.
“The said SEs requested for and received hearing from the Minister. They raised a number of procedural concerns with the Minister. Based on various queries raised, the Minister had sought legal opinion from the Advocate General,” he said.
On the basis of AGs opinion, the Minister has ordered to chargesheet four “suspended” SEs, besides conducting a detailed investigation into all tenders allotted under Urban Mission.