Civic chief alleges signature forgery

SAMBALPUR: Chairperson of Sambalpur Municipality Rina Trivedi has accused an NGO of forging her signature to undertake work under Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) from Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).Trivedi has moved State Nodal Officer of RAY, who is also the Vice-Chairman of BDA, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Minister and HUD Secretary, RDC (ND), Sambalpur District Collector and Superintendent of Police over the issue and sought action against the NGO.Reports said the NGO, Biswas, had applied for work under RAY with the BDA and deposited documents in support of its proposal, including an appreciation letter from the Chairperson of Sambalpur Municipality. The letter no. 2554 dated 21.12.2010, Trivedi said, was never issued and did not reflect in the issue register.The letter reportedly says that the NGO has worked in Biometric and Socio-Economic Survey in slums under Sambalpur Municipality and completed Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programmes and Integrated Low Cost Sanitation (ILCS) successfully.Trivedi clarified that although the NGO was assigned the Biometric and Socio-Economic Survey work, it failed to complete the DPR of ILCS and the bill against the survey has been pending due to time overrun.  She has urged the authorities to blacklist the NGO and cancel all the work awarded to it besides initiating criminal proceedings against it.Biswa Public Relations Officer Pramod Pattnaik, however, said the organisation has taken up no work which requires a letter of appreciation from the Sambalpur Municipality. We are open to any inquiry on the veracity of the signature of the Chairperson, he added.