Chandigarh:

Business class tickets, luxury five-star hotel rooms and unaccounted expenditures – An audit has found shocking irregularities at three senior IAS officers who traveled to France on an official visit in 2015, raising questions about the misuse of public funds. question.

The three bureaucrats were Vijay Dev, then advisor to the administrator of Chandigarh, Anurag Agarwal, then home secretary of Chandigarh, and Vikram Dev Dutt, then secretary (personnel). . At that time, former Punjab Governor Kaputan Singh Solanki was also in charge of Chandigarh affairs.

travel

In 2015, the Chandigarh administration received an invitation from the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris to attend a conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, who had developed an overall plan for Chandigarh. planning. The government nominated four participants for the event. The permission of Vijay Dev, Vikram Dev Dutt and Anurag Agarwal has been sought from the Home Ministry. Tour plans are drawn up and approved. It turns out that officials approved each other’s travel – Mr. Dev’s trip was approved by Mr. Dutt, and Mr. Dutt’s trip was approved by Mr. Dev. Mr. Dev also approved Mr. Agarwal’s plan.

A report by the Chandigarh Auditor General (Central) said the invitation was meant for one official – Chandigarh’s chief architect – but three secretary-level officials went instead, at taxpayers’ expense. The report pointed out that the trip was not sponsored by the host foundation and all expenses were paid by the Chandigarh government. The officials also allegedly circumvented rules prohibiting travel abroad for more than five days without approval from a review board. This trip lasts for 7 days. One point highlighted in the audit report was that officials extended the one-day tour to seven days without approval.

cost

The business class ticket price for each of the three officers is Rs 1.77 lakh. Changes were also made at the hotel, the audit report noted. “Initially, InterContinental Paris Avenue was charged Rs 4,39,168 (r/o Advisor to the Administrator UT, Chandigarh) and Rs 3,42,954 (r/o Advisor to the Administrator UT, Chandigarh) between June 12, 2015 and June 18, 2015 (Day 07) r/). o Personnel Secretary and Town Planning and Home Affairs Secretary and Tourism Secretary. Later, the hotel was renamed Hotel Royal Monceau Paris from 12 June 2015 to 18 June 2015 at a cost of 9, 10,364 o Advisor to the UT Administrator, Chandigarh and Rs 4,43,498 to Personnel Secretary cum Town Planning and Home Secretary cum Tourism Minister,” the audit report said. The change cost over Rs 6.70 lakh.On the reasons behind the change, Mr. Agarwal told indian express In 2022, “I don’t remember exactly… The consultant at the time wanted a location closer to the Arc de Triomphe… It’s possible that we booked a hotel but it changed due to location issues.”

RTI records show that Vijay Dev was initially sanctioned for the trip in the amount of Rs 6.5 lakh, Anurag Agarwal Rs 5.60 lakh and Vikram Dev Dutt Rs 5.70 lakh, totaling nearly Rs 18 lakh. However, the expenditure exceeded Rs 25 lakh, about 40 per cent higher than the initially sanctioned amount.

About a month after the trip, the Union Territory government under Vikram Dev Dutt approved Vijay Dev’s increased expenditure. Mr. Dev cleared extra charges for Vikram Dev Dutt and Anurag Agarwal, helping each other like before.

aftermath

Two officers have since been transferred and one has retired. Vijay Kumar Dev, now retired, is Delhi’s Election Commissioner. Vikram Dev Dutt is the director general of civil aviation regulator DGCA and Anurag Agarwal is the chief electoral officer of Haryana.

Administrator Banwari Lal Purohit took a tough decision last year after allegations emerged that several officials from Chandigarh traveled to Delhi in business class and stayed in five-star hotels.

“After careful consideration of the current situation, travel to Delhi by air will no longer be allowed from now on. All officials traveling to Delhi will travel by Shatabdi and Vande Bharat trains. Additionally, officials will stay at UT Guest House Bhawan or Haryana Bhawan in Punjab , but not in any star hotel,” he said in a letter to the government.

“As responsible officials, it is our moral obligation not to waste public money, nor to accept wasteful spending at any cost,” the letter states.

The IAS officer concerned did not respond to NDTV’s calls. “We have received the audit observations. We will review them and take appropriate action,” a senior official of the Chandigarh administration said.