Gurgaon: Artificial intelligence was always going to catch up with day-to-day governance. One just hoped it would be for the better. In a case of technology being misused, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has terminated an assistant sanitation inspector (ASI) for allegedly using AI tools to falsely show that civic complaints had been resolved.Officials said the complaint in question concerned illegal garbage dumping at a site and the photo showed the spot as clean.According to an official speaking order issued by MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya on Wednesday, ASI Waseem — engaged through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited (HKRNL) — edited field photographs using AI tools and uploaded the manipulated images to the grievance portal to claim sanitation work had been completed when it had never been carried out on the ground.The order stated that Waseem used the images to secure closure of public complaints, making his continuation in service “undesirable and against the corporation’s interests”. He was terminated with immediate effect.During the departmental inquiry and personal hearing, Waseem admitted to editing the photos, but the civic body found his explanation “unsatisfactory”.The inquiry described the act as “grave misconduct, fraud, dishonesty, falsification of official records, breach of trust and dereliction of duty,” concluding that using AI to fabricate evidence on an official govt platform amounted to serious fraud in grievance redressal. The order also observed that such conduct was contrary to prescribed procedures and inconsistent with the standards expected from a public servant.“We visited the site and found waste still lying there. When we examined the images using our AI detection mechanism, we found indicators, including a SynthID watermark, suggesting AI tools had been used,” MCG additional commissioner Yash Jaluka told TOI, adding that the misuse of AI to was an emerging governance challenge and that the corporation was strengthening its verification mechanisms.In a separate case, ASI Sonu was dismissed for allegedly using a GPS-spoofing application to mark attendance on the corporation’s digital solid waste management portal while being absent from his assigned duty location.The same day, MCG also terminated the contracts of two computer operators, Neeraj Vashishth and Ankur Arora, after a June inquiry found they had raised unnecessary objections in property ID and tax cases, deviating from the prescribed standard operating procedure and delaying applications.The case has prompted scrutiny of how civic bodies verify photographic evidence submitted through grievance portals, many of which rely on field staff uploading images with little independent cross-checking. With AI-editing tools now widely accessible, officials said the incident underscores the need for authentication safeguards — such as geo-tagging, timestamping or AI-detection tools — to be built into grievance systems as a standard check.“MCG remains committed to transparency, accountability and timely delivery of civic services. Fraud, negligence, manipulation of official records or misuse of position won’t be tolerated under any circumstances, and strict action will continue against any employee found compromising the integrity of the civic body,” Dahiya said.
