Noida CEO suspends project engineer for Rs 25 crore financial irregularities
Singh, who headed the advertisement department for the last five years, allegedly did not recover revenue from builders, malls and other private companies.
Noida authority chief executive officer (CEO) Alok Tandon on Wednesday suspended project engineer BK Singh for alleged financial irregularities to the tune of ₹25 crore in the advertising department.
Singh, who headed the advertisement department for the last five years, allegedly did not recover revenue from builders, malls and other private companies.
The CEO suspended him after conducting an inquiry, which was initiated after multiple complaints from residents.
“The investigation, which is still ongoing, revealed that he did not make any effort to recover around ₹25 crore from those who were advertising through hoardings, banners and unipoles put up by the authority in public places. The investigation established that he neither issued any notices to recover the revenue nor take any action in many cases. The final report will establish the exact loss his non-action caused to the authority. As of now, we have found that the authority lost nearly ₹25 crore in multiple cases,” Tandon said.
Singh used to work with the Kanpur development authority before being sent to Noida on deputation, sources said. During the previous SP-led government, he was heading the department that deals with advertising business, one of the highest revenue earning wings of the authority. He was responsible for allowing advertising outside the city’s shopping malls, public spaces and along main roads.
As per the advertising rules, the Noida authority charges ₹218 per square feet as monthly rent on advertisement on hoardings. The advertiser is allowed to use a public space only after getting requisite approvals. He then has to pay the Noida authority the fee for the period for which the space will be used.
“In cases that have been investigated so far, he did not recover the revenue thereby causing a financial loss to the authority. We have suspended him and also written to his parent department. Now we will serve him a chargesheet and initiate further necessary action as per law,” Tandon said.
Singh was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts.
Last year, the authority CEO had removed Singh from the advertisement department after multiple complaints against him had surfaced. Currently, senior project engineer SC Mishra is heading the advertisement department.
