Property survey: Officers were negligent in issuing sign-off certificates, says Haryana ACB
Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Chandigarh, January 5
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Haryana, has pointed out the negligence of concerned officers while issuing the sign-off certificates regarding errors in the property survey, during its discreet inquiry into the matter.
The certificates were to be issued after physical verification of the surveyed data, which enabled payment to the hired firm.
DSP ACB Shukar Pal has said the errors in the survey by Yashi Consultancy Services Private Limited (YCSPL) have been found to be less than 5 per cent of the surveyed properties selected for physical verification. However, “this seems to be highly unlikely that the data of errors in the surveyed work remained under 5 per cent in all ULBs (Urban Local Bodies) across Haryana”, as mentioned in the sign-off certificates, said the ACB report.
The ACB conducted a discreet inquiry on the directions of the Haryana Lokayukta, which is hearing a complaint of RTI activist PP Kapoor, a resident of Panipat, into the alleged fraud and corruption in the property survey. Kapoor procured the report under the RTI Act.
“Further, it has also been noticed that before issuing the sign-off certificates, the signing authorities have not conducted proper physical inspections/verifications of 10 per cent of the surveyed properties as per the terms and conditions of the agreement,” said the report, submitted to the Lokayukta on November 14, 2023.
The report pointed out that Commissioners of Municipal Corporations, District Municipal Commissions, Executive Officers and Zonal Taxation Officers had not maintained a proper record of the data of physical verifications, which could be verified to ascertain the authenticity of the survey, integrations and validation of old property IDs with new property IDs and distribution of information notices about the property IDs.
Consequent to the data of physical verification, the certificates were to be issued by the ULB officers concerned, based on which the payment amounting to crores was to be released to YCSPL, but what happened was contrary to it, said the report.
On the negligence of officers, the report said it would be early to say whether it was “bonafide or malafide” as the “ULBs are not maintaining the proper record of this data of physical inspection/verification with them which could be further analysed to establish the truth of the entire survey”.
The report has recommended a detailed open inquiry to uncover the truth.
The DSP noticed that the hired firm was debarred and blacklisted for not submitting deliverables, including the source code of a portal, a mobile application developed by the agency to depict the data on mobile phones, late submission of the surveyed work and its non-supporting attitude in the redressal of grievances of citizens. A show-cause notice was issued to the firm on August 3, 2022, and it has filed arbitration cases in the high court for the redress of the issue.
Shoddy physical verification
In its report, the ACB stated that before issuing the sign-off certificates, the signing authorities had not conducted proper physical inspections/verifications of 10 per cent of the surveyed properties as per the terms of the agreement
