Hyderabad: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation paid salaries to two data entry operators and five health assistants who were under judicial custody in the fake birth certificate scam.
Health assistants indulged in the racket were sent in custody and later got bail. They had not been reporting for duty for the last two months. Yet, the corporation paid them salaries and top officials had little idea of how the salaries were disbursed.
According to highly placed sources, GHMC staff were arrested by Rachakonda Commissionate on January 23 and sent in judicial custody on January 24, according to FIR. The accused were in police remand till February 5. As per report given by GHMC, though they were released on bail, the accused did not report to duties till February 21. Interestingly, they attended duty only on February 22 and did not report in March.
Sources said GHMC credited salaries to the seven accused even though they did not attend duty for 53 days and were in judicial custody for more than 10 days.
Asked about this, corporation officials concerned were unavailable for comment. Higher authorities were clueless about the issue.
Five health assistants whose services were outsourced and two data entry operators working in GHMC were removed from the works assigned through the existing agencies with immediate effect.
Health Assistants Kanna Rao (Alwal Circle), A. Raju, Y. Ramakrishna and Bapu Naidu (Circle 18) and Nani Babu (Quthbullapur) and two data entry operators Bhau Prakash (Quthbullapur) and Kiran Kumar (Secunderabad) were removed. However, no action was initiated against GHMC officials for absorbing the accused outsourced staff and paying salaries to them. There were allegations that huge amounts were collected from the accused for absorbing them in service in Quthbullapur, Alwal and other GHMC circles.
Over a dozen persons, including GHMC health assistants, were arrested for involvement in a racket of fraudently issuing birth certificates. Rachakonda police found that the gang, assisted by 14 agents, had issued more than 2,000 such certificates in the last three years. GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy said the corporation would not spare any staff or official found to be involved in corrupt practices.
