JMC parking slots allotment scam: Jammu Mayor constitutes 7-member inquiry panel; to submit report in 2 weeks

STATE TIMES NEWS

Inquiry report of 5 Corporators, retired Chief Engg PWD, CAO to be submitted to Crime Branch or ACB to book erring JMC officers

JAMMU: Jammu Mayor Rajinder Sharma on Wednesday constituted an expert committee to investigate major losses to Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) in the allotment of parking slots in Jammu City.
STATE TIMES had exclusively reported parking slots scam in its edition dated Dec 24, 2022 under caption “Parking Slots Allotment Scam in Jammu; Over Rs 99 lakh loss to JMC in last 11 months”.
Besides JMC Corporators, the panel consisting of retired Chief Engineer PWD Dinesh Rampal and retired CAO Yash Pal Sharma to submit report in two weeks. Senior JMC officers likely to face action.
While briefing the media, Jammu Mayor Rajinder Sharma said that Jammu Municipal Corporation identified 33 parking slots and allotted to Baba Infratech Corporation. Out of these 33 parking slots, the operational parking slots are at near K.C Theater, opposite City Square, opposite Swaran Theater Gandhi Nagar, Maharaja Hari Singh Park and D.C Office Chowk, Jammu. One parking slot is partially operational at Parade near Brahaman Sabha. The revenue generated by Baba Infratech Corporation with effect from March 01, 2022 to November 26, 2022 was Rs 25.60 laklhs and the share of Jammu Municipal Corporation @ of 4 per cent for this period was Rs 1.02 lakh. To investigate the irregularities while allotting parking slots under Smart City, Jammu Mayor has announced constitution of 07 (Seven) members committee comprising of Councillors and retired Technical Officers of different departments. The committee so constituted comprising of Councillors–three from BJP, One from Congress and One from independent namely Ashok Singh Manhas, Gopal Gupta, Surjit Singh, Rachpal Bhardwaj and Amit Gupta respectively. In the committee two retired officers namely Dinesh Ram Paul (Retd. Chief Engineer, (PWD) (R&B) and Yash Paul Khajuria (Retd. Chief Accounts Officer) have also been included.
Jammu Mayor Rajinder Sharma told the media that the committee shall investigate the whole process of allotment of parking slots under Smart City and submit their report within 15 days and if any irregularities found, the matter shall be forwarded to the investigating agencies of J&K UT like Crime Branch (CB) or Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Mayor Jammu while addressing the press conference briefed the media that in the General House meeting, a decision was taken regarding constitution of Consultative Committees of Councillors to deal with the important issues related to the administration of Jammu Municipal Corporation. The Mayor had also announced in the General House meeting that we are the custodian of Jammu Municipal Corporation and to look after the whole working process of Jammu Municipal Corporation and any loss to the exchequer of JMC and Government shall be dealt sternly. No public money to be wasted at any cost and everybody will be made accountable, Jammu Mayor said while addressing the media.
Sources informed that the JMC would have earned the revenue of more than Rs One Crore if the allotment of the parking slots would have been done properly on auction under rules and regulations.
This is just the tip of ice berg, there are many projects which have been allotted without meeting codal formalities. This has been done to favour the blue-eyed contractors, said a retired JMC employee.