Silence of Secretary ULB over the Thanamandi Municipality scam is questionable; No action yet against erring officials

Silence of Secretary ULB over the Thanamandi Municipality scam is questionable; No action yet against erring officials

POONCH TODAY NEWS

RAJOURI: Despite having full information about how rules were thrown to wind by a few Executive Officers in regularizing their nears and dears on the posts meant for Safai Karamcharis, Commissioner/Secretary ULB has maintained a questionable silence, and due to the weak approach on part of the government, those officers, who were part and parcel of this scam in addition to brazen financial irregularities, are moving freely and enjoying prestigious postings.

It’s a complete act of 420 that on the letterhead of the Executive Officer, the forged signature of the Director was used in regularizing their blue-eyed staff members. Those executive officers, who are the brainchild of the scam, remained involved in other financial irregularities as well. Horrible state of affairs in the Thanamandi Municipality were also detected by the committee constituted by the Rajouri administration, in which committee members found open frauds in various works and illegal backdoor regularization of their nears and dears by a few Executive Officers. The issue remained in the media spotlight several times, but instead of taking action against the tainted officers, Director ULB Jammu and Commissioner/Secretary ULB seem to have adopted a pin-drop silence, and this raises a big question mark on the efficiency of the top officers of the department. Highly placed sources close to “POONCH TODAY” in the directorate of ULB Jammu said, “Such issues exist in almost all the municipalities, and this is the reason that top officers are reluctant to initiate action in this aspect, fearing exposure to more scams in ULB Jammu.” Top officers just want to save the reputation of the department, and this is the main reason for their deliberate silence, they added.  Earlier, those executive officers who were involved in this open fraud were given prestigious positions. Sources also said that they also remained involved in many purchasing scams and misused their chairs openly. After scripting various scams, they know that nobody will take them to task because, from top to bottom, the department officials remain hand in glove. A high-level inquiry is needed from the anti-graft agencies to inquire how forged signatures were used in regularizing the daily wagers to permanent posts by a few executive officers. Moreover, other financial irregularities also need to be checked to know how much of the funds were misused by the Executive Officers in question in the Thanamandi Municipality and to bring to book those who openly misused their official positions, because no action has yet been taken against the erring officials.