Continuing its aggressive campaign against corrupt officials, the State Vigilance Bureau today booked six engineers of irrigation department and a contractor for causing huge loss to the state exchequer amounting to Rs. 5.47 crore during de-silting works of Harike Headworks barrage at its guide bandh (embankment).Disclosing this here today, Chief Director-cum-ADGP Vigilance Bureau Mr. B.K. Uppal said the Bureau received information disclosing commission of irregularities, misappropriation and criminal misconduct by the engineers of irrigation department in collusion with the contractor during execution of de-silting works of upstream side at Harike Barrage along right side of guide bandh near Harike Headworks."To probe the matter vigilance teams were constituted which found that the engineers of irrigation department in connivance with private contractor had caused a huge loss to the state government out of total contract amount of Rs. 12.04 crore. It was awful to know that the accused engineers have paid Rs. 5.47 crore to the contractor for completing only 45% of the tendered work and didn't take any action against him for not completing the work in the stipulated time", he added.Mr. Uppal has informed that on the basis of vigilance enquiry a case has been registered against Chief Engineer Canals Jatinderpal Singh, Executive Engineers Vijaypal Singh Mann and Gulshan Nagpal, SDO Mukesh Goyal, Junior Engineers of Harike Canal Division Rishab and Vikramjeet Singh Pannu and the contractor Ashok Kumar under Sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of IPC and Section 13 (1) (d) read with 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Ferozepur and investigation has been initiated.
Giving more details, Vigilance Chief further informed that the accused engineers by abusing their official positions have enhanced the cost of de-silting tender from Rs. 1.47 crore to Rs. 1.80 crore without the approval of the sanctioning authority, in April 2016. The Chief Engineer (CE) Jatinderpal Singh had allowed to open the tender at higher rates without prior administrative approval from the government and allotted the tenders to contractor Ashok Kumar by increasing its total cost to Rs. 12.04 crore. He added that during the enquiry it has been found that the CE Canals had approved enhanced tender rates after about 40 days even without getting consent from the government.It has also been felt during the enquiry that the concerned engineers of irrigation department would have shown the entire amount of Rs. 12.04 crore spent/utilized though a lot of work was still pending by the time of release of water, had the Vigilance Bureau not conducted check/enquiry. But the Vigilance Bureau’s intervention has dashed their plans to usurp the money.
Mr. B.K. Uppal revealed that CE Jatinderpal Singh had deliberately favoured the contractor by not issuing any directions for proper disposal of de-silted sand as per the prescribed Mines and Minerals Rules. He said that after transfer of CE canals, Ex. En Gulshan Nagpal, in connivance with his seniors and junior engineers, never maintained the stock of excavated sand material costing approximately Rs. 1.4 crore. In addition to this, the accused engineers, in collusion with the contractor, have also allowed disposal of de-silted material at longer distances than the approved distance of 1.7 km. The concerned JEs have entered longer distances in their Measurement Books than the prior approved distance causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.Mr. Uppal further added that the accused engineers have themselves added scope of work costing Rs. 1.80 crore in the earlier approved tenders and allotted total works amounting to Rs. 12.04 crore without calling for new tenders to favour the contractor. Though the accused contractor delayed completion of the work and could complete only 45% of work in three months but the accused officers by misusing their official positions have released Rs. 5.47 crore to the contractor and did not taken any action for getting the work completed in time and also not initiated any action against the contractor.He said during the de-silting work, the accused irrigation engineers had never warned the defaulter contractor to accomplish the work within a stipulated time which itself explains their collusion with each other. He informed that the vigilance officers have been directed to probe the scam thoroughly and guilty persons would not be spared in this case.