Uproar over LED scam in Jalandhar MC House meeting

Jalandhar, July 13

The third House meeting of the Municipal Corporation held today on the alleged Rs 10-crore scam in the LED project was stormy, but inconclusive yet again. Despite a report presented by the inquiry committee, which was set up in the last House meeting, and pressure from all councillors present in today’s proceedings, Mayor Jagdish Raja and newly-posted MC Commissioner Devinder Singh did not announce any action against officials concerned.

Amid mounting pressure from the councillors to act immediately, both the Mayor and the Commissioner took more than 45 minutes to finally announce that there would be another meeting on July 16 to take the final call.

Panel makes startling revelations

The committee inquiring into the alleged LED project scam brought forth certain startling facts in its report, which was circulated on Wednesday. Some of the findings that were raised during the meeting are:

• Instead of pre-decided 44,283 LED lamps, 72,092 were installed. No extra payment for 27,809 more lamps should be made to the contractor
• LED lamps of 18 or 70 wattage were installed by the contractor in violation of the agreement
• The LED company was paid Rs 75.86 lakh in excess on account of the Goods and Services Tax
• Retention money of Rs 1.36 crore was not deducted
• Bank guarantee of Rs 3.75 crore was not paid as 16 per cent of Capex amount
• In a major lapse, no earthing of LED panels had been done as part of the safety measure
• The fixed infrastructure development cost enhanced from Rs 2.97 core to Rs 4.96 crore, which again was in violation of the agreement
• An undue payment of Rs 38 lakh had been given to the contractor as maintenance
• Several wrong entries and errors were made in the stock register, raising suspicion
• An amount of Rs 9 lakh transferred to the company on July 5, even after an inquiry committee had been constituted to look into the alleged scam

There was so much pressure from the councillors, especially those who were a part of the eight-member inquiry committee, including Bachan Lal, JP Shamsher Khehra and Jasleen Sethi, that Mayor had to call in Lakhwinder Singh, the Nodal Officer of the Smart City project, to answer the queries of alleged wrongful payment to the contractor of the project, installation of lamps of low wattage, etc. However, the officer could not give any satisfactory reply.

House meet called on 1-day notice

MC Commissioner Devinder Singh, who was under constant pressure to give a time frame by which he could decide on action against officials responsible for the LED scam, said it was his third day in office and he needed some time. He went on to question the meeting, saying it had been wrongly called on 1-day notice as at least a 72-hour notice had to be issued to all members

Only 30 councillors in attendance

Even as the MC has 80 councillors, only 30 attended the meeting. Councillors said since the LED scam had become an unending topic, most of them were finding attending the House a waste of time

Ban Imposers turn violators

Despite the ban on single-use plastic, officials themselves failed to check the use of plastic takeaway containers for the distribution of refreshment to the councillors at the House meeting. The issue was raised by BJP councillor Sushil Sharma as he flashed a plastic container in front of the Mayor and the Commissioner