The Hindu : New Delhi News : Transfer and posting of tainted officials under CBI scanner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Transfer and posting of tainted officials under CBI scanner

Sujay Mehdudia

MCD's Vigilance Department role in illegal constructions also under probe

NEW DELHI: Continuing with its crackdown to expose the nexus between the builder mafia and officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is understood to have "seized" records relating to transfer and posting of officials including those whose premises have already been raided. The agency is also probing the role of MCD's Vigilance Department that failed to act on complaints of illegal and unauthorised constructions.

According to highly placed sources, the premier investigating agency has taken into custody the files pertaining to transfer and posting of various officials during the past six to eight years at various places across the city. The records pertain mostly to the Building Wing and involve the posting and transfer of junior engineers, assistant engineers and executive engineers who had allegedly connived with the builder mafia to help in the mushrooming of unauthorised constructions and land grab.

"The files have been sought relating to not only the people who have been raided but also some other officials who are under the scanner. Preliminary scrutiny of the files has revealed that a large of these officials had a strong nexus with senior officials of the Corporation and ensured that they were not transferred from one zone to another. This could also bring out involvement of political leaders including Councillors," sources informed.

Sources further revealed that in some cases former MCD Commissioners had made some posting orders on a particular day and then withdrawn them within 48 hours without assigning any valid reason. It is understood that two former MCD Commissioners and a Chief Vigilance Officer could also come under the scrutiny of the investigating agency for making arbitrary postings and transfers during their tenures.

"The case relating to Uppal's Orchid is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of such cases where the officials have connived with the builder mafia and given certification that a particular building had been demolished but only on paper. Even today unauthorised constructions is going on unabated and the official are turning a blind eye to it," said a senior MCD official.

On the other hand, the role of the Vigilance Department of the Corporation has also come under close scrutiny of CBI. The investigating agency is in the process of summoning various files pertaining to unauthorised constructions and action taken against officials on complaints that were received by the Department. It is understood that the Vigilance Department had received a large number of complaints in cases where illegal buildings and unauthorised construction activity had been pointed out but no action was taken for mysterious reasons.

"We will be closely looking at documents pertaining to such complaints and whether the Department seriously pursued the cases or it just sat on them. There are a lot many complaints against the functioning of this Department and how it worked in a biased and arbitrary manner while tackling corruption. Had this Department discharged its role impartially, things might not have come to such a pass," an investigating official said.

Agency records pertain mostly to the Building Wing and involve the posting and transfer of junior engineers, assistant engineers and executive engineers who had allegedly connived with the builder mafia to help in the mushrooming of unauthorised constructions and land grab.

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