New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has started the process to get the premises vacated of the up market Le Meridien hotel following the order by Delhi High Court for irregularities in paying of license fee, a senior NDMC official said.
Further, an enquiry against former NDMC Chairman Jalaj Shrivastava under rule 8 of All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) has been ordered by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to probe the charges against him.
According to a senior NDMC official, a settlement was done illegally with hotel management by accepting a one-time payout of over Rs 150.92 crore, which resulted in a loss of approx Rs 376.05 crore to the civic body.
As per MHA order, "The President of India has appointed Vishwapati Trivedi (IAS, Retd.) to probe the charges framed against the former Chairman of NDMC and submit the findings within a period of six months".
The letter issued by the MHA stated that Shrivastava, being the chairperson of the civic body, did not maintain absolute integrity and committed gross misconduct by fraudulently approving and thereafter accepting Rs 150.92 instead of Rs 526.97 outstanding against the hotel.
"It was also observed that Shrivastava committed gross misconduct by blatantly approving and settling the future license fee by applying wrong criteria for calculation of license fee. It resulted in loss of hundreds of Crores to government exchequer and wrongful gain to the Hotel, the letter stated.
According to sources in the NDMC, the criteria to calculate license fee was reduce to four instead of mandatory 21.
The letter further reads "The misconduct done by Shrivastava exhibit lack of integrity, devotion of duty amounting to unbecoming a government servant as it violated Rule 3 of All India Service (Conduct Rule), 1968".