June 19, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1428

LAYYAH, June 18: The engineering branch of the Layyah Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) has allegedly embezzled millions of rupees from the tehsil council development plan, it is learnt.

The TMA used its special powers to accommodate its ‘favourite’ contractors and did not get the development plan approved from the provincial development committee.

According to details, the Layyah Tehsil Council approved a Rs100 million development plan from the ‘tied grant’ of the provincial government on Dec 23, 2006. The plan included construction of roads, flowerbeds and footpaths and installation of streetlights in Layyah city.

The TMA’s development committee can approve projects worth Rs5 million, but the TMA has to get the provincial committee’s approval for projects costing more than Rs5 million.

To avoid the provincial committee’s approval, the TMA divided the Rs100 million development plan into 21 sub-projects — 15 projects of Rs4.995 million each, three of Rs5 million each and three of Rs3.7 million and less — and then got these projects approved from its own development committee.

For example, the TMA divided a 3.5km one-way road project into several parts. It allocated Rs4.996 million for improvement and expansion of the road from Qalma Chowk to Zaffar Iqbal’s shop with flowerbeds and streetlights, Rs5 million for the road from Sheikh Zaffar’s shop to Jhakhar Chowk, Rs3.498 million for the road from Jhakhar Chowk to the TMA office, Rs4.995 million for the road from the TMA office to GPO, Rs5 million for the road from Aslam Morr to Eidgah Chowk, Rs4.999 million for the road from Eidgah Chowk to the office of the highways department, Rs4.995 million for the road from the Highways Department to Sohail’s saw, Rs4.995 million for the road from Sohail’s saw to Jafri House, Rs4.995 million for the road from Jafri House to the Five-Marla Housing Scheme and Rs4.995 million for the road from the housing scheme to Gulraze Hotel.

The TMA allotted 18 of the 21 projects to its six ‘favourite’ contractors after taking a millions of rupees commission from them, sources said, adding the contractors and the TMA excluded footpaths, flowerbeds and streetlights from the projects to embezzle Rs25 million.

Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) Abdul Majeed Hadrani claimed no illegality had been committed in the construction of these projects, and that they were being completed according to their approved designs and estimates. He said the TMA would investigate if someone submitted an application about embezzlement of development funds for these projects.

Former naib tehsil nazim Malik Hashim Sahu asked the governor, the chief minister and the National Accountability Bureau chairman to order an audit of these projects to see if development funds had been embezzled.