City Heart scam: Lokayukta seeks ATR report

IN A fresh twist to the City Heart scam, the Lokayukta has sought a copy of the report tendered by a three-member probe panel and demanded to know action taken against then Indore Municipal Commissioner and present Bhopal Collector Sanjay Shukla upon the Mayor-in-Council?s recommendation?s.

Published on: Feb 10, 2006, 15:05:00 IST

None | By HT Correspondent, Indore

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IN A fresh twist to the City Heart scam, the Lokayukta has sought a copy of the report tendered by a three-member probe panel and demanded to know action taken against then Indore Municipal Commissioner and present Bhopal Collector Sanjay Shukla upon the Mayor-in-Council’s recommendation’s.

A letter to this effect was sent by the Lokayukta to Mayor Dr Uma Shashi Sharma last week. In an unprecedented move, the IMC, on October 5, 2005, withdrew its own complaint filed against City Heart builders for building permission violations in the High Court. The mysterious move set off reports of underhand dealings between Corporation officials and the builders forcing then MiC led by Mayor Kailash Vijayvargiya to suspend four engineers.

The Corporation filed a review petition in the HC against the complaint withdrawal on October 6 saying the City Engineer was not authorised to withdraw the case. The HC admitted the plea and reserved judgement in the case.

The matter, however, refused to die down and the MiC eventually proposed that action be taken against Municipal Commissioner Shukla. The Corporation also formed a three-member committee consisting of then MiC Public Works in-charge and present IMC Chairman Shankar Lalwani, present IDA Chairman Madhu Verma and Samir Chitnis to probe the issue.

In its report, the committee found that City Heart builders had exceeded allocated built up area by over 2,000 sq feet and deemed Shukla guilty of neglect. The matter later reached the Lokayukta, which last week asked the present MiC headed by Dr Uma Shashi Sharma to submit attested copies of all documents including the show cause notice issued to Shukla by the former mayoral council.

Incidentally, the High Court ruled against the Corporation in the City Haat case. The IMC appealed to the SC where the matter is currently pending.

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