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| EO pays salary to illegal appointees out of funds meant for housing of slum dwellers | | Municipal Council Sopore, a den of nepotism & embezzlements | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, July 7: There is complete mess as far as functioning of Municipal Council, Sopore is concerned. The Executive Officer of this Municipal Council is virtually calling the shots with nobody asking him for the wrong decisions that he takes on regular basis.
Executive Officer, Municipal Council Sopore, Lateef Ahmad Mir has swindled lakhs of rupees sanctioned under a Centrally Sponsored Scheme meant for providing shelter to the slum dwellers. Mir has taken a portion out of this amount and paid as salary to the workers and other staff appointed illegally by him over the past seven years or so.
Sources told Early Times that the Executive Officer withdrew an amount of more than Rs 25 lakhs and same was paid as salary to the illegal appointees. Although the fraud is known to the higher ups of the Urban Local Bodies department but no action whatsoever has been taken against the 'errant' official.
"The Executive Officer of Municipal Council, Sopore is a close confidante of former MLA Sopore, Abdul Rashid Dar and as such so far no action has been taken against him. His political connection has always saved him and this is despite the fact that he has ruined Municipal Council, Sopore," said sources.
Sources said that Mir transgressed his authority and misused the funds sanctioned for the housing of slum dwellers under the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP). Instead of utilizing the funds for providing shelter to slum dwellers the Executive Officer, Municipal Council Sopore disbursed the same as salary among the illegally appointed employees.
"Mir has been the Executive Officer, Municipal Council, Sopore for the past seven years and during these years he appointed dozens of persons on consolidated basis without any permission whatsoever. This fraud was established by the enquiry committee set up by the Government but as on date he continues to rule the roost at this municipal council," said sources.
Sources said that on the directions of Mir the imbursement of General Provident Fund (GPF) of the employees to their GP Fund Account has not been taking place for the past 20 months. Although, the GP fund gets deducted from the salary of the employees but the same does not get credited to their individual GP Fund accounts.
"The deductions are very much there but there is no clue of the further process. Nobody has any clue about the whole happening and the employees are quite perplexed over this entire scenario. The employees are quite apprehensive over this disturbing development but are clueless where to go since there is no relief in sight for them," said sources.
Sources said that the Centrally Sponsored Scheme has been misused by the Executive Officer. He has paid the salary to the illegal appointees since he received hefty amount from them when they were engaged at Municipal Council, Sopore. Since no action has been taken against him it seems that the higher ups of urban Local Bodies Department have virtually surrendered before corrupt officers like Mir. |
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