‘Kar Bhawan’ officials remain indifferent to ‘loot’ of lakhs

Jaipur: An interesting incident has occurred at the ‘Kar Bhawan’, the head office of the Commercial Taxes department at Ambedkar Circle.

The Kar Bhawan is located in a corner building and on its two sides, there are main entrance gates. These gates open up at Bhawani Singh Road and Janpath but the nameplates on the boundary wall are missing.

In the year 2009, when Mukesh Kumar Sharma was Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, he had got the nameplates installed on the boundary wall after selecting 20 feet by 4 feet space for it.

The plates-with copper alphabets on granite stone background, had cost Rs1 lakh each, and to keep these costly ‘names’ secured, they were kept under lock and key while also making arrangements for lighting at night.

However, as of today, these nameplates are missing and their spot in the boundary wall is lying vacant. Interestingly, the current ‘custodian’ Additional Commissioner (Administration) Jagveer Singh, is not in a position to reply as to where have these boards gone missing and since when are they missing, and if they have been thieved. Not only him, but several officers that sit in the ‘Kar Bhawan’ are also unable to reply to these questions.

After Mukesh Sharma, in these past 12 years, a dozen Commissioners have come and gone in the Kar Bhawan but never has anyone given any notice towards this issue while the entire building and premises are in a bad shape.

With a target of Rs 60,000 crore in the present financial year, the Commercial Taxes Department is a major and important contributor to the tax revenue, contributing 50% of the revenue.

The location of Kar Bhawan is also in a posh area, and therefore, an unclean building and badly managed premises are not only wrong from an administrative point of view, but it also sets a bad reputation of the department in public’s eye.