The Hindu : New Delhi News : Three tainted MCD officials suspended

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Three tainted MCD officials suspended

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 12. While the Delhi Government is yet to take action against all the officials involved in the much- talked about bribe-on-camera scam in the Sales Tax Department, the much-maligned Municipal Corporation of Delhi has taken the lead in this regard. In keeping with its resolve to tackle corruption at the highest level, the MCD Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, has suspended two executive engineers and one junior engineer whose houses and offices were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week.

Taking immediate action against the tainted officials, Mr. Mehta ordered suspension of the two executive engineers, R. B. Bansal of the Najafgarh Zone and A.K. Dikshit of the Karol Bagh Zone, and junior engineer, Jai Bhagwan of the Karol Bagh zone. During the raids last week, the CBI sleuths discovered assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. Following an interim investigation report from the Chief Vigilance Officer, Pradeep Srivastava, the three officials were placed under suspension.

The suspensions come close on the heels of the chargesheeting of the Additional Commissioner, Raj Mohan Singh, for his alleged involvement in the mid-day meals scam. Mr. Singh in his capacity as the then Director (Primary Education) had held up the file for approval of the new format of the mid-day meal scheme for months with the aim of benefiting private parties that were serving mid-day meals in the MCD schools at that point in 2003. The then CVO, B. S. Brar, had also found Mr. Singh guilty of serious misconduct and had sought initiation of departmental action against him in the mid-day meal scam. Interestingly, Mr. Singh, in order to divert attention from himself, had charged Mr. Mehta and his secretary, G. S. Matharu, of being involved in the mid-day meal scam and had sought a CBI inquiry in the matter. On the other hand, the CBI had almost completed its investigations against Mr. Raj Mohan Singh and found him to be in possession of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs. 1.22 crores in the Capital. In addition, the investigating agency had launched inquiry at Buxar in Bihar to unearth more assets believed to be in possession of Mr. Singh.

"I have told all the officers in the civic body that they should not hesitate to take action against the guilty. Instructions have also been issued to install closed circum television cameras at all those public dealing places to keep a watch on what was happening there and to prevent the corrupt from exploiting the people at large. We are determined to root out corruption and the corrupt and have been taking action against them without any delay,'' Mr. Mehta remarked.

Both Mr. Singh and Mr. Matharu have been at loggerheads. Mr. Matharu has filed an FIR against Mr. Singh for allegedly threatening him with dire consequences in the presence of some senior officers inside his office. Mr. Singh has been charge-sheeted in the mid-day meal scam and the same has been sent for approval of the MCD House to initiate action for his dismissal from service.

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