Harshraj Singh Ludhiana, October 19 A report prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has revealed about the alleged losses of Rs 42.92 lakh in a group housing project on Gill Road, Ludhiana. The report suggests the recovery of loss from the builder concerned. Earlier, one the complainants in the alleged Ludhiana CLU Scam of a group housing project, Sandeep Gupta, had filed a complaint with the CAG about the alleged loss of revenue. He had alleged that a loss of Rs 42.92 lakh has been caused during the assessment of change of land use (CLU) charges as well as building plan of the group housing project file. Now, Gupta claimed to have obtained the report which is signed by the assistant audit officer at the office of the Principal Accountant General Punjab, after filing an RTI application. According to the report, the directorate of the Local Government had issued a notification to levy external development charges (EDC), charges of land use (CLU), urban development cess (UDC) and permission fee (PF) in the MC areas of Punjab in 2014 and further revised the notification in 2017. As per the report, during the audit scrutiny of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC), it came to light that the builder concerned had applied for CLU on January 17, 2018, and the sale deed of land (registry) was done on January 19, 2018. Further it was noticed that the development charges were calculated by the Ludhiana MC on the notification of year 2014 whereas these were required to be calculated and recovered according to the notification dated October 6, 2017, as the building plan was approved on February 1, 2018, after three months from the date of revised notification as per the report. According to the report, the charges calculated by the Ludhiana MC were Rs 79,90,669 and the same was deposited by the builder on January 24, 2018, whereas as per the revised notification, the charges work out to Rs 1,22,83,470 which had resulted into a loss of Rs 42,92,801 to the civic body due to non-implementation of the revised notification. The report also states, “The department has replied that as per the Municipal Act 1976, a resolution on this account was required to be passed to implement any notification of the government. It was stated that municipal resolution in this regard was passed by the Ludhiana MC after lapse of more than 10 months from the date of issue of revised notification.” The report reads that the reply of the department was not tenable as no efforts were made by the Ludhiana MC for early adoption of revised notification and as a result, suffered a loss of Rs 42.92 lakh due to non-implementation of revised notification. “The calculated loss is required to be recovered from the builder,” the report states A senior officer of the MC claimed that they have not received the report till date. The matter about the alleged scam was highlighted in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in February 2019.

Stay updated with all the Latest Ludhiana headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.