Latur Municipal Corporation case: last chance to file reply to Central Govt & State Chief Secretary

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapait Sambhajinagar:

In connection with the Public Interest Litigation (PIL)’ filed regarding financial irregularities and other irregularities in Latur Municipal Corporation (LMC), Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice Hiten Venegaonkar of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday gave the last chance to the Central Government and LMC along with the Chief Secretary of the State and the Principal Secretary of the Urban Development Department to file reply.

All of them have been given time until March 7 to file a reply. The next hearing on this PIL has been placed on March 17.

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What is the petition?

As stated in the petition by former Latur corporator Prakash Kamlakar Pathak (80), as per the Accounts Code, the ‘income and expenditure’ budget of the LMC should be based on the average income-expenditure ratio of the previous three years. The LMC has ignored this mandatory point for the last 35 years.

Even court orders were not followed. The Corporation has misappropriated public funds by ignoring the objections received from auditors every year, spending without budgetary provisions regarding contractor bills and employee salaries, and without obtaining approval from the general body meeting. Despite repeated objections, the Corporation has continued to waste money.

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Request for ‘Privilege Committee’

Complaints were filed with the Municipal Commissioner and through him to senior officials regarding financial irregularities, irregular appointments, misuse of public funds, and misuse of authority in the Latur Municipal Corporation from time to time.

However, there was no response. Regarding the audit, the Accountant General (Nagpur) drew attention to the mismanagement and the huge waste of public funds resulting from it in the Latur Municipal Corporation case: last chance to file reply to Central Govt & State Chief Secretaryreport.

However, no proper investigation or action was taken in this regard.

The petition was filed after not receiving any response from the concerned agencies and individuals despite following up for several years through all constitutional channels. In the petition, it was requested that an order be issued to appoint a 'Special Investigation Team' (SIT) to conduct an independent, impartial and time-bound inquiry, taking cognisance of the serious matters in the petition.