Post News Network
Cuttack, Jan 19: Orissa High Court Monday directed the Urban development secretary to submit an affidavit explaining action being taken against fake employees of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC).
A bench comprising Chief Justice Amitava Roy and Justice Akhay Kumar Rath pronounced the order on the basis of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by journalist Pradip Sahu.
The bench expressed its displeasure over failure of the Urban development secretary in not executing its earlier order and directed the latter to file an affidavit within two days.
Sahu stated that CMC had appointed over a hundred employees between 1997 and 2000 illegally. He accused the CMC of paying Rs 17 lakh per month and Rs 2.04crore per annum towards salaries of those employees. After the recruitment scam came to fore, the then chief executive of CMC Bisal Dev had seized a register in this regard.
Dev’s successor Bisal Gagan had also urged the government to institute a Crime Branch probe into the scam. However, the matter was suppressed by some politicians and bigwigs, said Sahu urging the court to withhold salaries of those ‘unauthorised employees’.
Former CMC commissioner Aijak Behera confirmed that there is truth in the allegations.
