Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna has rejected a recommendation by the Lokayukta to publicly disgrace a councillor,who was allegedly found misusing a public pension scheme to extort money from people. Lokayukta Manmohan Sarin had ruled that notices,detailing a councillors misconduct,be put up in the Guru Hari Kishan Nagar ward,which he represents in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Poor aged,handicapped,widows,illiterate and helpless women,who have no means of survival,were sought to be deprived of pension (by the councillor). this was a despicable act. a fit case for application of the doctrine of name and shame, Lokayukta Sarin stated in his order in June this year. However,the Lieutenant-Governor,who is empowered to implement the Lokayuktas recommendations,wrote back to Sarin last week that the penalty of name-and-shame cannot be agreed to. This was revealed by a Right-to-Information query. During the investigation,which began in October 2009 and ended in June 2011,Lokayukta Sarin held the councillor guilty of withholding MCD pension to the needy until they subscribed to a religious magazine he was involved with. The councillor allegedly used his clout to withhold the monthly pension of Rs 1,100 as well as arrears amounting to Rs 6,000 due for 700 pensioners,the Lokayukta found. The respondent made pensioners believe that contributing or subscribing to a magazine titled Dharam Pravha was a prerequisite for payment or release of pension, Lokayukta Sarin said. He had said that as the downtrodden and the public looked up to their elected representative for help,it was only fitting that the truth about his actions be exposed in public. His recommendation,however,hit a roadblock at the L-Gs office. Besides rejecting the Lokayuktas call to shame the councillor,Khanna didnt respond to Sarins recommendation that he be booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Khanna said a criminal case has already been filed against the councillor with the anti-corruption branch of the Delhi Police,and the law will take its own course in the matter. The L-G also desisted from responding to Sarins recommendation that evidence recorded during his inquiry be handed over to the Delhi Police to speed up investigation in a case already filed against the councillor.
