The Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran has written to Chennai City Police to investigate a suspected fraud involving contractors who allegedly created fake bank documents to get bills settled from the civic agency without paying wages for workers in parks in three zones.
Sources said while the GCC received bank transaction documents from the contractors showing workers received salaries for maintaining parks, many workers actually did not receive salaries in their bank accounts.
Councillors in various wards of Manali, Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones have complained about non-payment of salaries for park workers for several months. Most of these workers belong to socially weaker sections.
After GCC officials examined the bank transaction documents submitted by certain contractors to get payment for bills for park maintenance, they found the documents were tampered to show as if salaries were paid to the workers in these zones.
This year, the GCC had invited bids in packages from private agencies for operational and maintenance work for 781 parks across the 15 zones. For bill payment it mandated private contractors to submit bank documents as proof of salaries being paid on time to the park workers. However, councillors complained about various issues pertaining to cleaning of the parks, owing to non-payment of salaries to the workers in many parks for three months.
According to a report submitted last week by the project management consultant to the Parks Department, one of the contractors had submitted fake documents of bank transactions to show as if the workers in Manali, Perungudi and Sholinganallur received salaries in August, September and October. The workers are paid Rs.19994 per month, while supervisors get Rs.22460 per month and electricians/pump operators get Rs.29943 according to the tender conditions.
Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Association president T.K.Shanmugham said the residents have complained about poor performance of conservancy workers in GCC parks.
“We demand better maintenance of parks and strengthen security early in the morning,” he said.
GCC officials said they are assessing the impact of the suspected bank fraud and will take action against those responsible for non-payment of salaries to workers.