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Chandigarh: Chief vigilance officer to probe ‘scam’ by former parking contractor
The contractor Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited, who was earlier managing the parking lots in Zone 2, has been accused of not paying dues to the tune of ₹6.5 crore to the civic body and submitting a fake bank guarantee of ₹1.5 crore to the MC. A case has also been registered against the Delhi-based firm.
Amid ruckus in the House over the alleged parking scam by a former contractor, mayor Anup Gupta said the chief vigilance officer will be spearheading the probe against MC officials in the matter.
The contractor Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited, who was earlier managing the parking lots in Zone 2, has been accused of not paying dues to the tune of ₹6.5 crore to the civic body and submitting a fake bank guarantee of ₹1.5 crore to the MC. A case has also been registered against the Delhi-based firm.
The mayor also constituted a committee of five councillors, including AAP’s Jasbir Singh Laddi, Congress leader Gurbax Rawat, BJP’s Mahesh Inder Sidhu, SAD’s Hardeep Singh and nominated councillor Umesh Ghai, who will be in touch with the police for daily updates on the progress of the investigation.
The House also witnessed a spat between the mayor and senior deputy mayor Kanwarjeet Rana – both owing allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party – over the parking scam. It started with the councillors, across party lines, demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter. Senior deputy mayor Kanwarjeet Singh Rana sought the entire record of the contractor’s pending payment to be tabled in the House. The mayor said this won’t be possible as the staff is yet to calculate the pending dues, and thus, it will be provided on March 9.
To this Rana said the councillors won’t approve any agenda till the record is tabled in the House. This led to a heated exchange between Rana and Gupta, following which the latter adjourned the House. No development agenda was taken up during the meeting.
Speaking on the alleged scam, the mayor said, “The day we got to know that the bank guarantee turned out to be fake, we approached the police. We have already marked a vigilance inquiry into the issue. The chief vigilance officer has been asked to investigate the MC officials. I agree with you all that funds of the civic body should not be misused. We have informed the police about the issue and an FIR has been lodged against the erring contractor.”
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader of opposition Damanpreet Singh, however, insisted on a CBI probe, terming the vigilance inquiry an eyewash.
“Wasn’t it an officer of the Chandigarh civic body who had to failed to verify this? Isn’t any officer responsible? All these faulty roles need to be investigated,” said Damanpreet Singh.
Both AAP and Congress councillors stood united as they raised slogans, seeking a CBI probe into the matter.
A few days ago, the Chandigarh Police had lodged an FIR against the Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited for providing forged bank guarantees to the MC during the allotment of 57 Zone-2 parking lots in 2020.
The three-year contract of this contractor and another firm, that was managing 32 lots in Zone 1, had ended last month. Since then, the MC has been managing 27 out of the total 89 parking lots in the city on its own.
