By Arun Pratap Singh
Nainital, 17 Oct: the Uttarakhand High Court, while hearing a petition claiming financial and administrative irregularities by the Municipal Authorities in the Nainital Municipal Council, today ordered suspension of Executive Officer Alok Uniyal. Not only this, the High Court has also seized the administrative and financial powers of Chairman of the Nainital Municipal Council, Sachin Negi. With this important decision of the Court, trouble for the Municipal Chairman and also for top Executive Officers of the Municipal Council has increased. The Court has also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of retired High Court judge, Justice Irshad Hussain, and ordered investigation of the irregularities alleged by the petitioner.
In addition, the High Court has also directed the Chief Secretary to conduct an investigation and present the report in the court within ten days.
The court has also directed the Executive Officer to pay an amount of Rs 50,000 to the petitioner, Ramesh Sajwan.
The case was heard by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal. Municipal Chairman Sachin Negi and Executive Officer Alok Uniyal had been summoned by the Court, today, and they were present in compliance with the judicial order.
According to the petition filed by Krishna Pal Bharadwaj, the Nainital Municipal Council had awarded the contract for installation of swings to Ramesh Sajwan of Dehradun against a tender amount of Rs 6.75 lakhs. The petitioner had also filed a tender for this work but it was not considered during the scrutiny of tenders. This has been challenged by Bhardwaj in the High Court.
According to the petitioner’s lawyer Piyush Garg, recently, Kashipur resident and contractor Krishna Pal Bharadwaj had filed three writ petitions in the High Court informing the Court that tenders submitted by him for some works had been deliberately excluded from consideration regarding installation of swings in deliberate violation of rules and had instead been awarded to Ramesh Singh Sajwan in deliberate violation of the rules. During the hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi, considering the seriousness of the case, converted the petition into a suo moto PIL.
During the hearing last week, the Chief Justice had also made harsh remarks against Municipal Chairman Sachin Negi and Executive Officer Alok Uniyal in respect of the allegations of arbitrary behaviour and financial irregularities in the municipal council. Taking a step further during the hearing today, the division bench suspended EO Alok Uniyal for ‘financial and administrative irregularities and seized the administrative and financial powers of Municipal Chairman Sachin Negi. Besides this, the Court also asked the government to order an audit and inspection of the accounts of the Municipal Council. In addition, the Court also directed the government to constitute an inquiry committee headed by former High Court Judge Justice Irshad Hussain. Speculation is now rife in Nainital that several other irregularities are also likely to surface during the course of investigation by the Inquiry Committee. Following this, some panic is evident among the higher officials of the Nainital Municipal Council.
It is also pertinent to point out here that, while hearing the case on 10 October, the division bench headed by the Chief Justice had directed Nainital Municipal Council to remove the swings on the same day. But the swings had not been completely removed from the park till 12 October, which was the deadline set by the Court. As a result, the court had summoned Municipal Chairman Sachin Negi and Executive Officer Alok Uniyal to the court. Both of them were severely reprimanded during the hearing today for operating the swings against the rules and issued a notice of contempt of court to them.
