Gurgaon: Two days after Union minister and Faridabad MP Krishan Pal Gurjar publicly lashed out at officials of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) during a stormy District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting, the civic body on Thursday suspended assistant engineer Sanjay Bansal.MCF has also constituted an inquiry committee headed by additional commissioner Saloni Sharma to investigate the allegations and submit a report within 10 days.The minister’s outburst, captured on video and widely circulated on social media, came amid allegations of poor infrastructure, corruption and misuse of public funds. Gurjar accused senior MCF engineers of allowing roads to deteriorate despite repeated repairs and questioned expenditure running into crores on plantation drives that allegedly showed little visible impact on the ground.“This is the public’s money, you will rot with worms and your children will bear its brunt… Roads are built, they break down. When someone says it broke in 10 days, you say that we will get it repaired. But why did it break in 10 days?” Gurjar said during the meeting.“The money you are taking is sinfully earned. You have turned the municipal corporation into a den of looting of public money. You want money for everything. God above is watching you,” he added.Gurjar also alleged that nearly Rs 10 crore had been spent on plantation work, but officials could not explain where the trees had actually been planted. He said such irregularities were tarnishing the image of the Haryana govt.Two BJP MLAs present at the meeting separately raised allegations against the civic body’s functioning.Ballabgarh MLA Mool Chand Sharma accused MCF officials of reconstructing roads that were still under warranty. “This is not your father’s money,” Sharma told officials while questioning the repeated rebuilding of roads.Badkhal MLA Dhanesh Adlakha alleged that some officials were operating through middlemen and raised concerns over the quality of recent construction work.“They’ve kept thieves at MCF office. Sanjay Bansal is taking commissions; they’ve turned it into a hub for middlemen,” Adlakha alleged.“Check the roads built 10 years ago — not a single one in the whole city would have been broken like this. But the roads built in the last 10 years are in terrible condition,” he added.Following the meeting, MCF suspended Bansal while taking cognisance of the allegations levelled against him.Sources said Gurjar’s sharp criticism of the civic body has triggered political discussion beyond the immediate corruption allegations. In political circles, the timing and intensity of the attack are being viewed as a reflection of the factional rivalry between Gurjar and Vipul Goel, who currently holds the urban local bodies portfolio in the state govt.Gurjar and Goel could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.
