The Deputy Director had stayed the decision of the civic body taken in connection with six employees allegedly involved in the scam and had asked for a detailed report. The report was sent by the council last week.

The council at its meeting held on November 25 last year took a lenient view regarding the scam and had decided to let off six municipal employees, indicted by the Vigilance inquiry, by issuing a warning.

It has been pointed out in the report sent to the Deputy Director that the state transit pass (58/16207) and receipts issued from state transit book (15658) had been released by one person but the pass had not been issued by the council. As such it was fake. According to the statement issued by Sushil Kumar, sadar clerk, the passes which had been released did not have the writing of any employee of the octroi wing.

The council had decided to let off the employees by giving a warning even when three separate inquiries had allegedly held the council employees guilty of issuing fake passes.

The council president, Mr Charanjit Singh, had pointed out at the meeting that out of the six employees, indicted by the vigilance inquiry, two had been on duty in the council office since 1998 and not at octroi posts. The remaining four employees, though working in the octroi wing, were not on duty when fake passes were issued.

The scam had come to light in February, 2003. Thereafter, the Ropar Deputy Commissioner had asked the Kharar SDM to conduct a probe into the matter. The inquiry showed that state transit passes issued were fake and the council had suffered a financial loss due to it. The inquiry report of the SDM was forwarded to the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, who ordered an inquiry into the scam by the Vigilance Bureau. The bureau indicted six clerks of the council for conspiring to issue fake transit passes from octroi posts in the town.

The Director, Local Government, had then asked the executive officer of the council to take action against those indicted. However, the council set up a three-member committee, comprising two municipal councillors and superintendent of the civic body to probe into the matter. The panel upheld the recommendations made in the earlier two reports.