Former councilor fires salvo at municipal council

A Correspondent

ITANAGAR, July 13: Itanagar Municipal Council is yet again in the news as former councilor of Ward Number 18 Gora Lotak has called upon for the filing of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the municipal council department on Friday.

He alleged of the department being involved in huge corruption and illegal transaction in the name of building Individual Household Toilet (IHHT) at Itanagar and Naharlagun under the scheme of Swach Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2015-16.

“418 in ward number 18 applied for the IHHT; but till date they have not got any fund for constructing toilet,” Gora Lotak told the reporters while addressing a press meet .

He further said, that the poor are without basic facility in terms of health and hygiene and the department got the Utilization Certificates (UCs). It’s an open fact that no toilet has been constructed or money paid to any beneficiary of the scheme.

He questioned as to how the allegedly erring officers could get the UCs for work which was never executed on ground. He informed that an amount of Rs 267.24 crore was sanctioned and released for the construction of IHHT at Itanagar and Naharlagun. He further said that the department has failed to furnish detailed photographic evidence of IHHT built in 23 wards.

Meanwhile, Lotak appealed to the Governor through a letter submitted on July 9 for immediate suspension of the erring officers and constitution of SIT to probe into the alleged misuse of public fund under government schemes.

As an alternate to the officers involved in the alleged misuse of fund, he suggested that the total amount sanctioned for the IHHT under the SBM scheme be refunded to the department of Urban Development (UD) with three-year interest.