2 graft-tainted employees reinstated: Chandigarh mayor, councillors oppose move
On August 8, CBI had arrested Sandeep Dhankar, health supervisor in Chandigarh MC’s sanitary department, and chief sanitary inspector Chander Mohan, and recovered ₹1 lakh bribe money from them
A day after the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) reinstated two officials of the medical officer of health (MOH) wing, arrested in a graft case in August, mayor Anup Gupta termed the move unacceptable.
Besides the mayor, BJP councillors and Congress councillors also opposed the move.
On August 8, CBI had arrested Sandeep Dhankar, health supervisor in MC’s sanitary department, and chief sanitary inspector Chander Mohan, and recovered ₹1 lakh bribe money from them. The duo had allegedly accepted the bribe for reinstating a sacked employee.
MC had suspended the two officers, but the incident had evoked uproar against corruption during the General House meeting on August 29.
Cutting across party lines, the councillors had demanded an inquiry against the senior officials of the MOH wing. Two months later, CBI had filed the challan against Dhankar and Mohan on October 6.
However on November 14, MC decided to reinstate the officers.
Mayor Gupta said, “Although it is an administrative decision, I am totally against it. The officials were caught red-handed by CBI and reinstating them is totally not acceptable by me or my party.”
BJP councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, who had raised the issue in the August House meeting, wrote on social media, “Two senior employees were caught red-handed and arrested for taking bribes by CBI just three months back, their suspension revoked and reinstated in service...Earlier, no parallel departmental enquiry ever ordered into this matter despite the fact that it involved corruption by these employees in discharging official duties.”
While opposing the move, Chandigarh Congress spokesman Rajiv Sharma alleged, “The BJP-led MC has been mired in corruption from head to toe for some time. The reinstatement of the accused employees was done to save the skin of certain senior MC officers, whom the accused were about to name as accomplices. It is a matter of grave concern that no departmental inquiry was held against the two accused employees, which could expose the chain of their accomplices within MC. This shows how the corrupt are being protected and shielded in the BJP-led institutions.”
When asked, MC commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “There is an acute shortage of staff. Departmental inquiry has been instituted and the final decision will be taken upon submission of the inquiry report.”
