Chandigarh parking lots: Six MC staffers chargesheeted for failing to recover ₹8 lakh stamp duty
The MC commissioner also wrote to the Chandigarh administration, asking them to take action against the then in-charge, SK Jain, a retired HCS officer, in the matter. Jain was appointed the additional municipal commissioner of Chandigarh MC in 2019.
In another irregularity pertaining to parking lots in Chandigarh, municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra acted on the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Saturday and chargesheeted six officials of the civic body for failing to recover ₹8 lakh stamp duty from two parking contractors, whose term ended in January this year.
The MC commissioner also wrote to the Chandigarh administration, asking them to take action against the then in-charge, SK Jain, a retired HCS officer, in the matter. Jain was appointed the additional municipal commissioner of Chandigarh MC in 2019.
Those chargesheeted were identified as sub-divisional engineer Jagdeep Singh, superintendent Monil Chauhan, superintendent Sunil Dutt, senior assistant Kulbhushan, senior assistant Pooja Kainth, and junior assistant Shakun.
The CAG report had highlighted some discrepancies in the collection of stamp duty from parking contractors. The MC officials had collected around ₹8 lakh less than the required stamp duty fee. The six MC employees have been charged under major penalty clauses, which means the employees will have to submit their reply and after which they may face a departmental inquiry or even be dismissed from service.
Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones – 32 in Zone 1 and 57 in Zone 2. In 2020, the Chandigarh MC had auctioned both zones for three years for around ₹10 crore annually. Zone 1 was managed by contractor Ram Sunder, while Phase-2 was managed by Paschatya Entertainment. The contract of both expired on January 30 this year.
MC already under scanner for parking scam
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already investigating the alleged multi-crore parking scam involving contractor Anil Kumar Sharma of Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited. It is alleged that Kumar had furnished forged bank guarantees to bag the contract of 57 parking lots in Chandigarh, and had also been diverting the money collected to different accounts that were in his name and that of other firms.
The CBI has seized all records pertaining to parking contracts from the municipal corporation’s office in sector 17 in this case. The UT Police is also planning to report the scam to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after discovering shell companies and a possible money laundering angle.
While working on recovering ₹6.5 crores unpaid licence fee from the Zone 2 contractor, whose contract had ended in January, MC officials had approached the bank concerned in New Delhi to recover the money through bank guarantees submitted by the contractor.
The bank, however, informed the MC that guarantees for ₹1.65 crore were forged, following which a cheating and criminal conspiracy case was registered at Sector 17 police station on February 18, 2023, on the complaint of the Chandigarh municipal corporation. Police have so far arrested seven persons in the case. As per police, Anil used to incorporate shell companies in the name of his employees and relatives with the intention of grabbing parking tenders by the municipal corporations in various places, including Chandigarh, Delhi, Bhopal and Noida. He also allegedly obtained a GST registration number on the basis of forged documents of such firms.
