JAMMU, Apr 10: Ex President off CCI Jammu Rakesh Gupta wrote to incumbent President over mis-use of Funds in Jammu Chamber of Commerce & Industries .
Read Letter copy with Cross Town News below
THROUGH SPEED POST
9TH April, 2022
To
Sh. Arun Gupta,
President ,
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Regd)
Jammu.
Sub: Minutes of the 1st Executive Members Committee Meeting held in a phased manner & Misuse of CCI Funds including Grant-in-Aid
Dear Mr. Arun Gupta Ji,
I am writing this communication to your good self both in the capacity of being a Senior Member as well as the Former President of CCI Jammu. This is in reference to the Minutes of the first so called Executive Members Committee Meeting Dt: Nov 18, 2021 signed by Sh. Gaurav Gupta, Secretary General CCI received by the undersigned by hand. I would like to point out certain discrepancies with regard to the decisions taken as per the registered Constitution of CCI as observed by me after going though the same which are as under:
1. That , the present team Office Bearers got elected on Jan 17, 2021 and your good self was supposed to constitute and circulate the List of Executive Members Committee within one month as prescribed in the Constitution of CCI but the same was not constituted hence not circulated up to date.
2. That , after a lapse of nearly 15 months , the List of Executive Members committee has still not been circulated so i request you for a copy of the same urgently. I would also request you for a copy of the balance sheet for the accounting year 2020-21.
3. That , at the first instance as stated in the agenda and in the minutes of the meeting , please let me know that under what provision in the Constitution of CCI was this claimed so called Executive Members Committee meeting convened in a phased manner as i am of the opinion that even the Lok Sabha session cannot be held in phased manner citing the reason as Covid Restrictions.
Moreover , why was this so called Executive Members Meeting held after nearly seven months i.e. on September 4, 5 , 8 , 9 , 11 and Oct 1, 2021 which could have been held much earlier when there were less Covid Restrictions in place . I feel that you have done all this deliberately so that you could manipulate the facts. I would also like to question you that why have these minutes of the so called Executive Members Meeting been circulated selectively.
4. That, referring to “Budget Allocations” in the minutes of the so called Executive Members Meeting , please note that no figure was projected money wise under any Head for approval so the contents in the minutes of the meeting claiming having obtained authorisation to spend un limited amount of money under various heads is false and fabricated .
5. That, it has been said in the minutes of the meeting that your team got the approval for completion of un finished portion of Chamber Building . At the first instance you did not mention in detail about what un finished portion needs to be completed. I would request you kindly to furnish the details of the same along with the expected expenditure projection. Secondly , I would like to know the the source of funds for carrying out further construction work and would also request for a copy of plan approved by the JDA for the same.
Its pertinent to mention that in 2014 when the first meeting of the Executive Members Committee was convened during my tenure as the President and your good self was the Secretary General at that time , we had proposed for some budget allocation for the renovation of the existing functional block of Chamber House but Mr. Romesh Chander Gupta Ex President CCI , Sh. Parveen Gupta also an Ex Office Bearer of CCI along with two other senior members had categorically objected and said that members money will not be used for the same and i was asked to raise the funds from other sources. Respecting their sentiments and avoiding confrontation I successfully collected a sum of Rs. 90 Lacs purely through my personal efforts from various other sources in the form of CDF from MP, MLA’s , MLC & Grant in Aid from the Finance Department of the Government.
6. That, the issue of pending approval of the membership of 461 esteemed members as per the deliberations in Hon’ble court in 2020 was to be considered in the Meeting of Executive Members who have paid approximately 1.5 Crores as membership fee. The same was not even kept as an agenda item which speaks volumes of your dubious intentions.
7. That, it has also been mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that you have surrendered the parking space in front of the Chamber House citing the reason that the CCI has been using the same for free so why pay the rent to JDA. Please note that there was no private parking space constructed within the Chamber House building and hence I got that space allotted during my tenure in 2018 as the President after a lot of efforts through JDA Board. Such a step to surrender the said parking space would mean that any future building expansion plan may be rejected by the JDA because of inadequate parking space.
8. That, with your unilateral decision of surrendering the said parking space its amply clear that you have ignored my communication Dated: 27 Jan, 2021 addressed to your good self wherein I had mentioned Ongoing / Pending Works at Chamber House. Please note that Governments keep changing and so do the Chamber Office bearers too but no one stops the ongoing and pending development works. I had clearly mentioned in the said letter that non functional / un finished portions proposed building plan had been submitted to the JDA for approval already in 2019 for the first phase of construction.. This was never pursued by you and you shelved the plan for construction of the proposed JCCI CLUB which was dream of the majority of members.
9. That, if you had made up your mind to destroy the dream of the majority of members to have their own CLUB then why did you not keep the same as an Agenda item in the so called meeting of the Executive Members Committee instead of un democratically taking such decision on your own . The issue was rather raised by members in the so called Meetings of the Executive Members Committee. It speaks volumes of your dictatorial and un democratic attitude which is totally unacceptable. It is pertinent to mention that during my tenure as the President more than 500 members had already submitted the JCCI CLUB membership forms and contributed through cheques a sum of Rs. 5.5 Crores approximately out of which Rs. 3 Crores had already been encashed and respective GST amount deposited with the State Taxes Department.
10. That, you and your team had no right to shelve the plan for construction of the proposed JCCI CLUB for which funds amounting to Rs. 5.5 Crores approximately had been contributed by the worthy members till that time . Moreover why have you not returned every bit of money paid by these members after taking this disastrous decision to cancel the said contract unilaterally .
I had participated in the first so called Meeting of the Executive Members Committee on Sept 04 , 2021 just to caution you not to proceed any further without settling the major pending issues of “ Approval of Membership of 461 Members and Refund of Proposed JCCI Club’s Membership Fee to more than 500 Members” but you are hell bent on destroying our prestigious Institution.
Please note that your team has no right to use the funds contributed by the 461 Members as Membership Fee to CCI Jammu who are still waiting approval as well as the funds contributed by more than 500 members as JCCI Club Membership fee both totalling to Rs. 4.5 Crores approximately lying in the different bank accounts of CCI Jammu.
Moreover , I am of the opinion that you are pushing your self created agenda un democratically and in total violation of the constitution of CCI Jammu. You must not forget that you were elected by getting 34% votes in your favour in a triangular contest and majority of 66% voters voted against you and that too because 20% of the worthy members could not cast their valuable votes at that point of time because of a Court Order.
You went on record by stating to a local electronic channel some time back that the whoever constructed the un finished structure block at Chamber house between 1998-2000 had got the building plan approved in the year 2000 which is totally false and a blatant lie as the lease deed was executed only in the year 2018-19 under my name and signature as the President CCI after 23 years of the allotment of the land. The President at that point of time Sh. Romesh Chander Gupta who is also your elder brother had constructed this ill conceived structure illegally without JDAs approval and spentapproximately 20 lacs from the funds of CCI Jammu at that point of time means almost 5 crores in present times considering the inflation index. It was built at that point of time when the membership strength of CCI Jammu was less than half in numbers of what the membership strength is today. It was built ignoring the realistic facts and lacking the vision to build something keeping in mind at least 25 years to come. I also caution you that it was built as a standalone structure and the present condition of the structure was that the iron in the slab had rusted with water dripping from the slab. Further to update you , permission can be sought from JDA to build 6 stories rather than wasting the prime land of Chamber House for such a structure that wont be of any use.
I would also like to mention that business community of Jammu Province and the people at large always look upon CCI Jammu as a big force to help the economy get better and work with the Government to get more and more developmental projects. Let me remind you that during my two Tenures as the President of CCI from 2014- 2019 the achievement list is too long to summed up here and I feel sad to see that in more than one year of your present tenure as the President CCI the business community has lost much and gained nothing.
I would also like to caution you , never ever try to make any changes to the “ RAM SAHAI MEMORIAL HALL” . It has come to my notice that you are planning to do so. You must acknowledge and respect the immense contributions of Late Sh. Ram Sahai and you must not even dare to think of taking any such insane steps.
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