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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, April 13: Demanding the removal of Municipal Commissioner V.K. Duggal for indulging in 8220;malpractices8221; in the midday meal scheme, municipal councillor and member of Standing Committee Vijender Kumar alleged that he had misled the Standing Committee to 8220;benefit8221; the Modern Food Industries.
Citing the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General CAG of India, which states that the MCD incurred losses to the tune of Rs 7.59 crore in the midday meal scheme, Kumar said that it corroborated their allegations. He further said that the report states that there was bungling of funds to the tune of Rs 5 crore in glucose biscuits bought from the same company.
According to the CAG report, the MCD provided 1.02 kg of wheat to the Modern Food Industries for every loaf of bread weighing 800 gram, whereas the actual requirement is only 500 gram. Kumar said that the Standing Committee had only authorised the MCD to buy bread worth Rs 4.2 crore from Modern Food Industries. However the MCD had spent Rs 6.28 crore till March 1998 for this purpose without any sanction from the committee.
By September 1998, the civic body had spent Rs 9 crore in purchasing bread and that too without any authorisation. Kumar said that the report proved without any doubt that Municipal Commissioner V.K. Duggal and Additional Commissioner Health Rakesh Bihari had together executed a scam of crores of rupees. He said that now that the matter had come to light members of the Standing Committee would meet the Home Minister L.K. Advani to apprise him of the situation and appeal for the commissioner8217;s removal. He said that they would table a proposal under section 54 of the DMC Act, wherein the central government can remove the commissioner from office if the resolution has been passed by a majority of the not less than three-fifths of the total number of members of the corporation.
