MCG probes 10 officials for ‘malpractice’
GURUGRAM: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has initiated an investigation against 10 members of its enforcement staff—two sub-divisional officers (SDO) and eight junior engineers (JE)—to ascertain if are guilty of malpractice to further the interests of individual builders.
According to officials, members of the team who have come under the scanner may have colluded with certain builders by approving their building plans even when they violated the norms laid down by the civic body.
“Investigation has been initiated and no violation has been confirmed so far. However, malpractice cannot be completely ruled out as yet since the municipal corporation is carrying out the investigation on a case-tocase basis,” MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav said.
An MCG official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the violations are largely regarding approval of building plans of structures that have more than four floors.
According to the Haryana Building Code-2017, individual plots in Huda and plotted sectors can only have a maximum of four storeys.
MCG officials said that possible malpractice was flagged by a senior official of the civic body who noticed, while passing through one of the sectors of the city in which several buildings had more than four floors.
Upon cross checking MCG records, however, he found that the approved plans of these buildings were shown as less less than four storeys high.
According to the rules, the MCG issues the completion certificate/occupation certificate and the certificate of conformity to rules and structural safety, only when a building has been completed and serves as proof that it meets all the regulations listed in the Haryana Building Code, 2017.
These certificates, vital for occupying a building, are issued by the municipal corporation only after spot verification by officials.
The investigation comes close on the heels of an MCG tax officer being relieved of his position after he was found guilty of misusing his position.
The order of transferring zone-2 ZTO Sameer Srivastava to the Municipal Council in Bhiwani was issued on Wednesday by joint commissioner Vivek Kalia.
The officer had came under the scanner for allegedly threatening residents of Udyog Vihar with penalties if they did not play inflated property tax bills.