Asst Town Planner nabbed for demanding Rs 30K bribe

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has apprehended Sukhdev Vashisht, Assistant Town Planner (ATP), Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, for demanding a bribe of Rs 30,000.

The accused has been arrested based on several complaints received from stakeholders. Officials said the complainants had alleged that the accused had been deliberately delaying file approvals and extorting money from the applicants. They had reported hat even though 70 per cent of building maps in the area had already been approved by the MC, the ATP Vashisht had refused to clear certain files unless bribes were paid.

In a particular case, the ATP had demanded Rs. 30,000 to process the case. The complainants also accused him of using threats, including sealing buildings during inspections to intimidate applicants and even told that he is not afraid of his transfer.

It is also learnt that Vashisht was actually a draftsman and had the officiating charge as ATP. The VB is learnt to be in possession of at least 15-16 fake notices of the building branch, the record of which was nowhere found in the MC registers or diaries. There were five notices which bore the same number but were addressed to different notices. The VB officials are also learnt to have made some recoveries of valuables from the house of Vashisht.

The VB officials further added that after a preliminary examination of the complaint, the VB Jalandhar range had registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the MC official and arrested him.

The report about the arrest is being connected with the divesting of security cover of Jalandhar Central MLA Raman Arora as Vashisht earlier had the charge of ATP in the wards of his constituency. Arora, however, refutes any link with the case. “He served in my area a year back and I never interfered in his work”, said Arora.

Today, ex-MLA Sheetal Angural went live twice on Facebook wherein he alleged that the ATP was posted in Jalandhar West area for the past over two months. He alleged that the ATP had got printed two sets of notices – one for official purpose and the other were fake and only meant for intimidating people.

Jalandhar