The Delhi Assembly’s Petitions Committee on Friday recommended an inquiry against the Public Works Department and its top official after it found that the former had lied about the amount of work completed for cleaning drains ahead of monsoon.
Presenting the committee’s report to the House, Petitions Committee chairperson and Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Greater Kailash Saurabh Bharadwaj said the nine-member panel had found the status reports of the PWD and the municipal corporations on the amount of desilting done false.
The committee had on June 1 started an inquiry into the claims of the civic agencies and the PWD after receiving a petition by Pandav Nagar resident Neeraj Kumar, who said the agencies had failed in their duties to clean drains and prevent waterlogging. After five meetings and six field visits by PWD and municipal officials, the committee found many instances of drains that had been declared clean in reports to be full of garbage.
Reality check
Mr. Bharadwaj said when the committee showed the engineers-in-chief of the three municipal corporations photos of clogged municipality-maintained drains, they admitted that there was some difference between their reports and the reality. “But, when we asked them if they would take action against the officials responsible, they said they were satisfied with the work done. This shows how corruption has spread from bottom to top,” he said.
As per the committee’s report, the status report presented by PWD Principal Secretary Ashwani Kumar, who told the committee that 60% of the desilting work had been completed as on June 5, “turned out to be bogus fabrication full of untruths”. Both the PWD and the civic bodies gave similar reports to the Delhi High Court, which is hearing a writ petition on the issue.
‘Reports manipulated’
“Presenting such manipulated, incorrect and misleading status reports to the committee of the Legislative Assembly is a fit case for initiation of proceedings against officials responsible for committing breach of privilege and contempt of the House,” the Petitions Committee report read.
The panel also asked Chief Secretary M.M. Kutty to conduct a probe to “fix responsibility for false claims made by the department and fraudulent payments made to contractors who have done the desilting work only on paper”. It also asked Mr. Kutty to divest Mr. Kumar, who also holds charge of the Vigilance Department, of both charges till the inquiry is completed.
