The United Democratic Front (UDF) council party of Kozhikode Corporation has reiterated its demand to have Corporation Secretary K.U. Bini removed or suspended from service over the alleged mess-up in connection with the suspension of two officials accused in the building number scam. In a letter to Minister for Local Self Government M.B. Rajesh, council party leader K.C. Shobhita alleged that the Secretary’s negligence could incur significant financial loss for the Corporation.
The building number scam of 2022 came to the limelight recently when the Kerala Administrative Tribunal ordered the Corporation to revoke the suspension of the two officials, section clerk N.P. Suresh and clerk who handled the labour tax section M. Anil Kumar, citing procedural lapses. The tribunal directed the civic body to provide the officials all benefits including salary owed to them during their suspension period, starting from June 27, 2022.
Under the Kerala Municipality Act, the decision to suspend the officials should have been taken by the Mayor, and implemented by the Secretary.
However, in this case, the Secretary took the decision, and the Mayor sanctioned it. Besides, the suspension of officials should have been approved by the Corporation council, rather than being simply announced during a council meeting. The tribunal noted that the officials were neither served show-cause notices, nor were their explanation sought before the suspension. The tribunal pointed out that their explanations should have been presented before the council to seek its approval. The Corporation also did not inform the Department of Local Self Government which appointed the officials, about their suspension.
“There has been a grievous lapse on the part of the Corporation Secretary. Her actions indicate a lack of understanding of the Kerala Municipality Act. Retaining her in service will hinder the smooth functioning of the Corporation,” Ms. Shobhita said. The council party also demanded that the financial loss incurred by the Corporation due to the Secretary’s mistake should be charged from her.
The scam involved the misuse of login details of employees in the Sanchaya building tax assessment software used in the revenue section of the Corporation. The internal investigation by the civic body revealed that 195 buildings were assigned numbers through this method. The case is at present investigated by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
