Local bodies department starts process to track missing files

Saturday, 20/07/2019

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CHANDIGARH : The Punjab local bodies department has initiated a process to track the files which have reportedly gone missing from its office.

Top functionaries in the department on Friday said that all the dispatch and receipt registers are being tallied with the department’s inventory of files. Different branches in the department have been alerted.

There are at least half-adozen files which have been missing since the cabinet reshuffle last month, when Navjot Singh Sidhu was divested of the local bodies portfolio and Brahm Mohindra was brought in his place.

A senior officer in the department, seeking anonymity, confirmed that some vital files have gone missing and the department was in a shock as “such a thing never happened” in the past.

Officials said the missing files include those related to levy of entertainment tax, Rs 1,144crore City Centre scam in which a clean chit was already given to Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, a contempt case against Sidhu, and a case of change of land use given to a Ludhiana-based project.

Despite repeated attempts by HT, Navjot Sidhu could not be contacted.

A top department functionary described the incident of missing files as “unfortunate”.

EFFORTS ON TO PLACATE SIDHU Meanwhile, Brahm Mohindra told HT that he is making efforts to placate Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was given power portfolio in the reshuffle.

“We will make efforts to bring him back. I tried for a meeting with him, but it could not materialise,” he said, adding that this episode is denting Sidhu’s personal image and also harming the state government and the Congress.

After the reshuffle, Sidhu did not take charge of the power department and had gone incommunicado. He recently tweeted his resignation from the local bodies department.

MAYORS SEEK FUNDS FROM MOHINDRA Meanwhile, the mayors of municipal corporations of Patiala, Bathinda, Phagwara, Pathankot, Moga, Ludhiana, and Mohali met local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra here on Friday.

They complained that the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is charging power bills for operating tubewells and streetlights on commercial basis.

Patiala mayor Sanjeev Bittu termed the commercial charges as unjustified and said that tubewells and streetlights are operated for the benefit of the common people living in cities, so the bills be levied on domestic tariff.

Patiala mayor Bittu told the minister that Good and services tax (GST), cow cess and octroi from different departments and corporations were pending.

He asked local bodies minister to take up the case with various departments for recovery, which runs into crores of rupees.