The Times of India              24.05.2013

Lokayukta permission still pending with IMC, says mayor

INDORE: Mayor KrishnamurariMoghe on Thursday said that matter related to giving permission to Lokayukta to prosecute six serving engineers of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) in SugniDevi land scam case is pending with municipal corporation and it is the jurisdiction of commissioner.

Mayor said if the matter comes to him then it will be presented before the mayor-in-council. He stressed that there is a clear demarcation in role of commissioner and mayor. Matter related to civic official are taken care by commissioner, while rest of the matter is taken care by mayor. Mayor was talking to media at a press conference to praise the work of state government and pat the back of government over planning commission decision to allocate Rs 35,500 crores in 2013-14.

Former Suresh Seth had filed a petition in 2011 in Sugnidevi Land scam case. In the petition, he made 28 people accused, including industry minister Kailash Vijayavargia, who was then mayor of IMC. Recently Lokayukta has file charge sheet against 18 people including BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola. Charge sheet against six engineers of IMC and then municipal commissioner could not be filed as Lokayukta failed to get due permission for it. As per the rule Lokayukta has to take permission from concerned government department to prosecute public servants.

On demand of Congress, to make then mayor Kailash Vijayvargia accused in the matter, mayor said that he can not comment on it. However, IMC will cooperate with the investigating agency.