The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation failed to provide the enquiry report of the probe conducted in the payments made to the contractor for Pakhowal road (from Sidhwan canal to MC limit) under RTI for more than a year. Citing the file as missing from MC records,the MC till date has also failed to provide the bills of bitumen used for the project to RTI activist Kuldeep Singh Khaira who asked for information way back in 2011. However,when the missing file of enquiry report was found and provided to Khaira in January 2013,more than a year and half later,it has come out that the report was not presented in front of MC Commissioner at all. Through the RTI information provided by MC on April 11,2011,it came out that the contract of repair of camber and laying 30mm SDBC on Pakhowal Road from Sidhwan Canal to MC limit amounting to Rs 1.49 crore was awarded to M/S S S Singla dated February 25,2009 without analysing technical bids. As per norms work for more than Rs 1 crore has to be awarded only after analysing technical bids of the bidder but it was not done. Further,it came out that in violation of clause number 8 of work order,contractor did not execute an agreement on non-judicial stamp paper within 7 days. He executed the agreement on October 25,2010,19 months and 25 days after issuance of work order. Not only this but the Finance and Contractual Committee (F&CC) itself debarred the contractor for extensive delay in work but still the then Mayor Hakam Singh Gyaspura on the request of area councilor Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal gave a green signal to the same contractor. The agency was debarred by F& CC for two years dated October 7,2010 but final payment was made to agency amounting Rs 1.60 crore on December 6,2010 without prior approval of F& CC. (all copies with The Indian Express.) SAD councilor Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal,despite agency being barred by F&CC,wrote to the Mayor on October 28,2010 to get painted lines on this road and re-carpet road till Gurudwara Sahib Shaheed Karnail Singh Nagar by revising the budget which was approved by then Mayor Hakam Singh Giaspura. Moreover,an item naming thermoplastic paint was included for which MC paid Rs 8.52 lakh despite the fact that agency was debarred by F&CC. Rs 26.09 lakh were paid as difference in rates of bitumen without obtaining the bitumen bills as per letter no 3638 dated April 15,2011 sent to agency by executive engineer. MC till date has failed to provide copies of bitumen bills under RTI. Following all these revelations I filed a representation to MC commissioner AK Sinha on May 30,2011 and he marked an enquiry to then additional commissioner Kuldeep Singh and asked for enquiry report within 15 days . Despite multiple RTIs and case in State Information Commission I got the report only in January 2013 only to see that it was never put before commissioner at all, said Khaira. The enquiry officer Kuldeep Singh prepared enquiry report on August 9,2011 but it was never submitted to the commissioner. A letter demanded fresh probe was written to R K Verma,previous MC commissioner on April 24,2013 but no action was taken. Meanwhile,Rahul Tewari MC commissioner said,I will be asking for the report which was not presented earlier from the department concerned and action will be taken against guilty.
