₹12.6 lakh travel bill: PTU dean takes varsity for a ride
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There is no capping of expenditure on my car. The bills are the result of extensive travelling I have done for official purpose. I visit Chandigarh routinely.
NP SINGH, dean, planning and external development
RECORD SHOWS DEAN TRAVELLED 280KM EVERY WORKING DAY ON OFFICIAL INNOVA FOR 16 MONTHS AND CLAIMED ₹76,000 A MONTH ON AVERAGE; VARSITY HAS NO MECHANISM TO CHECK SUCH MISUSE
CHANDIGARH: In what could be rampant misuse at best or a scam at worst, a dean NP Singh, at Inder Kumar Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKGPTU), Kapurthala, has received expenses for travelling 280km each working way for the past 16 months (from January 2016 to April 2017).
The amount he has got for the period is ₹12.6 lakh or ₹76,000 a month.
Such extensive travel also raises a question on when was he available in his office during these 16 months. The cash-rich IKG-PTU has no proper transport policy in place and the varsity faced shortage of cars for its staff last year. So, in January 2016, private Innova vehicles were hired for senior faculty members.
However, under the tender conditions for the hiring, officials were supposed to travel 80km per day. HT has accessed the record of the travel of Singh, posted as dean (planning and external development) from the finance department of the university.
DEAN HIMSELF SIGNED BILLS
Interestingly, the varsity has no mechanism to check the misuse
of vehicles, the dean himself could sign the bills and, that too, without taking any permission or tour approval from the vicechancellor.
Under the tender, the use of the hired Innovas was capped at 1,600km a month, assuming 20 working days a month (Monday to Friday). The cap was based on the fact that the houses of all main officials were situated a maximum of 15km away (30 km to and fro). So, the distance that the Innova would travel was
150km a week or 600km a month.
An additional 1,000km was granted for other travel, including for official trips to Chandigarh. On running the 1,600km, each cab was to be paid ₹40,000 a month.
A tender clause stated that if the travel exceeded the limit, the car would charge ₹10 per km extra. From the ₹12.6 lakh that the dean got, in not even a single month did he claim less than ₹70,000. In December 2016, he claimed ₹ 91,000.
SCAM OR LUXURY?
A source said the claims were high as the dean had been misusing the cars for personal purpose. Singh has rubbished any such suggestion. “There is no capping of expenditure on my car. The bills are the result of extensive travelling I have done for official purpose. I visit Chandigarh routinely,” Singh told HT, when contacted.
Notably, he has a controversial past and was suspended from the varsity on the charges of corruption, but was reinstated.
The second dean (research and development) AP Singh has travelled within the permissible limit, barring a few months when the extra travel expense has been very high.
“An investigation will reveal everything. It’s a scam, where officials cars are being grossly misused,” a senior official said.