CHENNAI: The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) suspended Superintending Engineer Srinivasa Rao, who was booked by the DVAC last year over irregularities in a tender of Koyambedu wholesale market, on January 31, the day of his retirement.
The criminal original petition filed by the DVAC was closed by the Madras High Court recently after the government advocate submitted that following a thorough enquiry by the CMDA, it was recommended that Rao would undergo departmental disciplinary action.
However, sources said the CMDA rather than initiating action against Rao, allowed him to oversee major tenders, Sources, on condition of anonymity, said Rao should have been removed from all tender committees once he was booked by DVAC. Surprisingly, the CMDA already had a superintending engineer, who allegedly got sidelined by the CMDA.
According to a former employee, the genuineness of all tender processes undertaken by Rao while he was booked is now under question, and to usher in transparency in the tendering process, the vigilance department has to enquire into all the projects and also against the officials.
Rao was booked in a case pertaining to a CMDA tender cum auction notification issued on July 22, 2019, for the sale of four categories of unsold shops in the Koyambedu market.
The superintending engineer, who has the power to conduct the auction, assigned the tender to Senthilkumar, the highest bidder, for a shop measuring 1,061.88 sq.ft and 201.76 sq.ft of courtyard marked as ‘restaurant’ category in the Periyar Vegetable Market at Koyambedu. It was auctioned at a total value of Rs 2.18 crore. However, the sale deed was executed in favour of Senthilkumar as a ‘vegetable’ shop instead of a ‘restaurant’.
Senthilkumar took possession of the shop and converted it into 11 small shops to carry out the vegetable business. Usually, for regular shops or vegetable shops, the ‘upset’ price varies from Rs 23,750 per sq.ft to Rs 26,250 per sq.ft depending on the location, and accordingly, the shop should have been valued at Rs 3.05 crore. This revealed wrongful revenue loss of Rs 86.87 lakh to the government exchequer.