Another scam in Uttarakhand, the role of Dehradun Municipal Corporation is also suspicious

The scams coming to light regarding hoardings and unipoles in Doon have once again raised questions on the functioning of the Municipal Corporation. Irregularities regarding hoardings continued for about 10 years and the corporation remained a mute spectator.

Despite the tenure of about two mayors and the change of many Municipal Commissioners, the corporation could not change this trend. Now the question is, which employees of the corporation were involved in the irregularities that continued for years?

The role of senior officials has always been in question

The role of senior officials of the Municipal Corporation in the hoarding business has always been in question. Be it the allocation of tenders in collusion with the hoarding company or the matter of withdrawing from action against illegal hoardings in the city. This is the reason why no new tenders for hoardings were made in the city for years.

In the year 2015, tenders were made for 191 sites of the city for two years during the tenure of the then Mayor Vinod Chamoli. Then this tender was given to the Delhi-based company ‘Twenty Four Into Seven’, which was already handling the responsibility of hoardings in Doon city. Soon after this, this tender came into controversy.

There were allegations of taking the tender by forming a syndicate and one company went to the High Court. Then there was talk of cancelling the tender and getting a new tender, when Twenty Four Into Seven also reached the High Court and the High Court had banned new tenders in the city in the year 2015 itself.

Hearing was pending in the High Court

After that, no new tenders were made in the city, because its hearing was pending in the High Court. Actually, earlier the corporation included only four companies in the tender. The applications of other companies were canceled.

When the tender was opened, there were allegations of irregularities, on which the then Urban Development Minister ordered an inquiry, but this investigation was buried in the files. After this, in the year 2019, the report of the survey committee also confirmed the existence of about three hundred and fifty illegal hoardings. On which no action was taken.