21 May,2014 07:24 AM IST | | A Correspondent
MNS and BJP corporators accuse civic administration of going soft on chairman Ravindra Chaudhari due to his links with ruling NCP
Several PMC corporators demanded stringent action against the education board chairperson, Ravindra Chaudhari, for his alleged involvement in a flowerpot scam during yesterday's General Body meeting.
Relieved of his duty: Based on the report submitted by a probe pannel, Tukaram Supe who was asked to step down
The civic administration has already initiated action against the chief education officer, Tukaram Supe, who was asked to step down by Municipal Commissioner Vikas Deshmukh. A committee was appointed to probe Supe's role in the scam.
"The committee report states that Supe played a specific role in the scam. So we requested the state education commissioner and the education director to make a joint inquiry against Supe because he is a state government employee," Deshmukh said.
Questing the civic body's move of penalising only Supe, MNS and BJP corporators asked why no was action initiated against Chaudhari. They alleged Chaudhari's links with the ruling NCP as the reason for him being spared an inquiry by the PMC.
MNS corporator Bala Shedge said, "The cheques sent to principals of civic schools had Chaudhari and Supe's signatures. This means that Chaudhari is also equally responsible in this case." Shedge's companion Kishor Shinde seconded his opinion.
In his reply to the corporators, Deshmukh said he has the authority to act against education officer and not the board chairperson. But later he cleared that the PMC would be filing a police complaint in this matter to expose the role of all those involved in the scam. He also assured of a subsequent inquiry once the police were done with their investigation.
Despite repeated attempts, Chaudhari remained unavailable for comment The scam By breaching the model code of conduct, the PMC education board issued cheques of Rs 3000 to all the civic schools for purchasing flowerpots
in the third week of April 2014.
The board officials overlooked the exorbitant amount of Rs 1,000 per flowerpot by the contractor in-charge of
supplying the flowerpot.
