AFTER HIGH COURT NOTICE THE VIGILANCE BUREAU COMES INTO ACTION: COLLECTS SAMPLE FROM THE ROAD AND STREETS OF SAHBAD, KURUKSHETRA

AFTER HIGH COURT NOTICE THE VIGILANCE BUREAU COMES INTO ACTION: COLLECTS SAMPLE FROM THE ROAD AND STREETS OF SAHBAD, KURUKSHETRA

CHANDIGARH,  RAPRIA: 06.10.2015. On Tuesday, the matter relating to the corruption in the construction work in the Municipal Committee, Sahbad, Kurukshetra, was listed before the bench of Justice Harinder Singh, Sidhu of the Punjab & Haryana High Court. The Additional Advocate General appearing for Vigilance sought time for filing reply in the matter, though he  told that after receiving the notice from High Court the Vigilance Bureau collected the samples of material used in the construction of streets and roads in the area of the Municipal Committe, Sahbad and the same has been sent to the Lab to testing.

Earlier, after hearing the arguments of Mr. Pardeep Rapria, Advocate for the Petitioner social activist Rakesh Bains,  the High Court had sought reply from the Chief Secretary, Vigilance Department, Haryana and Director General, State Vigilance Bureau for allegedly not carrying out proper investigation into the corruption in the construction work, despite the clear directions of the Chief Minister, Haryana. Mr. Rapria counsel for the Petitioner raised question: how many persons can afford to approach the High Court, if the Petitioner had not approached the court the accused would have succeeded in destroying the crucial evidence.

RTI Activist Rakesh Bains through his lawyer Pardeep Rapria had argued before the HC that, the completely non-existent roads were shown to be constructed only on papers like MB and other files and bills thereof were duly passed by the concerned officers, after spot inspection by the Executive Engineer, Junior Engineer etc. The inferior quality material was alleged to be used in the construction of roads, by the contractors in collusion with the Govt. Officers; The Speed Breakers worth 15 Lakhs were allegedly shown to be purchased in a single day, by the President, of the Municipal Committee. Whereas, he was authorised to spend maximum amount of Rs. 5 Lakhs in a year. And, even the existence and whereabouts of these speed breakers itself is questioned by Petitioner. Therefore, the Petition informed the Haryana Govt. about this corruption, along with a CD, in which the Counsellors and Officers were, allegedly heard, claiming to have 2% commission, as a bribe, for passing bills. On this, Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar gave approval ‘to inquire report and punish the corrupt persons of M.C. Shahbad (M) involved in the misuse of Municipal Funds’ by the State Vigilance Bureau. But the matter is pending investigation with the State Vigilance Bureau, since last one year, and nothing concrete appears to be done in the name of investigation.

The triggering point for approaching the High Court by Petitioner was that to  his the officials of the Municipal Committee, ordered a contractor to carry out fresh construction work, by dismantling the old one, which is the subject-matter of pending investigation. The Petitioner’s counsel pleaded before the High Court that dismantling of the old work would cause the disappearance of the crucial evidence of corruption in the earlier public works. The Petitioner is of the view that the Govt. Official-Contractor nexus is bent upon to destroy the evidence and Vigilance Bureau is sleeping. The laxity on the part of the Vigilance Bureau compeled the Petitioner Rakesh Bains, to knock the doors of the HC; through his Advocate Pardeep Rapria.  Petitioner prayed before the court to monitor investigation. The court has fixed 15.01.2016 for filing reply by the Vigilance.