City-based Congress leaders have demanded a probe against UT Administrator General S F Rodrigues (Retd) regarding the alleged discrepancies in various mega projects. The Administrator should proceed on leave till the probe is complete, they have asked. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the leaders called for abolition of the post of the Administrator and said the practice of having a Chief Commissioner as head of the city be revived. They claimed that an Administrator is not a constitutional post and that he does not enjoy diplomatic immunity in this capacity as he does being the Punjab governor.Waging an attack against the Administrator, the Congress demanded stalling of all the mega projects till the probe into these is complete. The Congress leaders had earlier complained against the functioning of the Administration to various leaders including former Home Minister Shivraj Patil as well as Rahul Gandhi during their visits to the city. Recently, UT Advisor Pradip Mehra had raised objections to the land being sold at a far lesser price than its value for the Medicity project. He had demanded a probe from a Central agency in the issue.Former mayor Subhash Chawla said: “Only after the Advisor pointed out discrepancies in the projects, the Administrator initiated a probe against him and that too based on an anonymous complaint. This shows that there are vested interests involved. It is a ploy to blackmail the Advisor. We have been saying for a long time that all is not well with the Administration. Their under-cover dealings are now being exposed. Land has been given to selected builders at throwaway prices while the price of land acquisition in Punjab is much higher.”The leaders said they would approach Home Minister P Chidambaram with their grievances soon. Councillor Davinder Singh Babla said all the mega projects should be cancelled and land should be sold through open auctions. The leaders added that changes in the bylaws were benefitting only a few. While the booth owners cannot extend their shops even a little, the floor area ratio for some places like the Centra Mall has been increased, they said. Mayor Pardeep Chhabra, MC councillors along with other leaders attended the conference. However, Union Minister of State for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal and president of Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee B B Behl were conspicuous by their absence.
