Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has alleged a major scam in the Panipat Municipal Corporation’s cleaning contract and demanded a CBI probe into what he calls a “statewide cleaning scam” involving multiple cities. He accused the BJP government of resuming corrupt practices after securing a third consecutive term.
“After countless scams like liquor, mining, recruitment, crop insurance, cooperatives, Amrit Yojana, now the cleaning scam of Panipat Municipal Corporation has come to light. According to the information received under RTI, crores of Rupees have been scammed in awarding the contract of cleaning work,” he said.
Citing information obtained through an RTI, Hooda stated that on May 13, 2022, the Panipat Municipal Corporation awarded a two-year street and road cleaning contract worth ₹84.08 crore annually across four zones. The contract was due to expire on May 13, 2024, but instead of inviting fresh tenders, officials allegedly extended the contract multiple times without proper procedures.
“But instead of inviting new tenders, the urban local body in collusion extended the contract period till 30 June. After this, in the meeting of the cabinet sub-committee of the government held on 25 June, the contract period was extended till 31 July, giving illegal benefits to the contractor companies. After this, the period was also extended till 31 December 2024,” he said.
After this, in January 2025, the cabinet sub-committee secretly increased the contract rate of these two private companies by a huge 84 percent without inviting new tenders. Due to this, instead of 84.08 crores, it was now decided to pay Rs 154.83 crore annually to the companies. Along with this, the contract period was also extended by one year till 31 December 2025.
“Despite the expiry of the contract period, repeated favouritism to the contractors and additional approval of crores is clearly exposing the scam. It is also clear that the government itself is involved in this loot of crores. That is why despite the CM Flying Squad filing a case against these two contractor companies in another fraud of Rs 15.84 crore, no arrests are being made.
It is alleged that these companies had to employ a total of 1259 employees, but in connivance with the officials, they employed only 847 employees and defrauded the government of Rs 66 lakh per month. Despite such serious allegations, no arrest has been made in this case so far, nor has any officer been suspended and nor have the contracts of the accused companies been cancelled.
Hooda said that earlier such scams have been exposed in the entire state including Kaithal, Rohtak, Gurugram and Faridabad, but instead of taking any action, the government is busy protecting the scamsters. “It is clear from this that the government itself is involved in these irregularities. Therefore, all these cases should be investigated by the CBI, so that this looting of people's hard earned money can be stopped,” he said.
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