Action against ''illegal'' extention in Congress House

Shimla, Mar 31 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today said that two floors and the parking in the new Congress office building, erected at the Cart Road in Shimla were illegal and necessary action as per the rules would be taken in the matter.

Replying to a question of BJP member, Rikhi Ram Kaundal, during the question hour in the House, Mr Dhumal said the construction of Congress office building had been done on an area of 2611.12 Sqm while the land allotted on lease by the government was 759.20 Sqm.

He said that the no objection certificate required to be sought from the national highway authority had not been obtained, besides the parking was covered defying authorisation.

Mr Dhumal said that an inquiry committee had been set up in December 2007 itself by the then Commissioner of Shimla Municipal Corporation and once its report were submitted, necessary action would follow.

In reply to a question of BJP member, Mahender Singh, IPH minister Ravinder Ravi said that a departmental inquiry committee was constituted to investigate the irregularities into the purchased items in the mechanical division- II of Shimla during the 2006-07.

The Minister said that the inspection into the matter had revealed that purchases made since 2003-04 up till 2005-06 were in utter disregard to the provisions of PWD code to avoid scrutiny by the competent authority before according financial sanction.

The purchases of worth Rs 1,94,00,000 were made by splitting orders during these years, he said.

He said that the findings reveal that single-day process of finalising the purchases make them highly suspicious with regard to reasonability of rates, actual delivery of material and genuine source of supplies.

The huge difference in the purchase pattern indicates that purchases were not in accordance with the workload in term of rules, he added.

In her reply to a question of Congress member, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Sarveen Chaudhary said there were four Nari Seva Sadan operational in the state and the Mashobra situated Sadan is the only one to house 18 women.

She said that with no occupancy in the Sdans (houses) situated at Mandi and Chamba, the department is contemplating to close these Sadans, while the matter pertaining to closure of Nari Seva sadan at Nahan is consideration with the HP Bal Kalyan Parishad.

UNI AS JN JS1949