BELAGAVI: A scam to the tune of Rs 260 crore has taken place in the power corporations in the state, Leader of Opposition in Council Chaluvadi Narayanaswamy has alleged.
The BJP leader alleged that the Opposition was deprived of the opportunity to expose the scam in the House, citing technical reasons on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday, Narayanaswamy said that when an adjournment motion was moved in the Council, the Opposition was prevented from raising the issue by citing technical reasons. Even as the work granting tenders comes under the International Competitive Bid, Narayanaswamy alleged that tenders worth Rs 260 crore were illegally divided into four parts and given to the same private company by the State Government.
A tender floated by the Raichur Thermal Plant was worth Rs 128 crore, and another floated by the Bellary Thermal Plant was worth Rs 140 crore, he said. “Even as the CM, who is the president of power corporations, was present in the House, the Opposition was denied a chance to raise this serious matter of large-scale corruption,” the BJP leader added.
The issuance of such tenders actually falls under International Competitive Bid, but the government divided it into four parts and granted all of them to the same Mumbai-based private company, he said, and charged that the estimate of the tenders had been “boosted” for bigger gains.
The first tender worth Rs 128 crore was divided into four tenders worth Rs 41 crore, Rs 38 crore, Rs 24 crore and another Rs 24 crore, he added. Congress MLA Basavanagouda Daddal wrote to the Energy Department on September 8 this year and to the Chief Secretary of the Energy Department urging them to cancel the tender of Raichur Thermal Plant and to verify the tender estimates again, said Narayanaswamy.
Merely four days after the reference of the tender worth Rs 128 crore, he said the bid meeting was held in the office of Chief
Engineer. After giving the tender to the same company in four different parts, the government surprisingly released Rs 40 crore to the company contractors within merely two months, he said, adding that on the other hand, the government was yet to clear the pending bills of many contractors for the last two years. “When HK Patil was the energy minister in the past, he had suspended officials who had split similar tenders in different parts,” recalled the LoP.
He claimed that a technical director working as an in-charge officer issued orders for the aforementioned tenders. The CM issued an order in January this year that all the outsourced employees and officers in the government departments who had retired from service already should be removed from service, he said. “However, R Nagaraj, a retired government official working as in-charge outsourced officer, issued the power corporation tenders. Nagaraj was experienced and aware of how to indulge in corruption. Another official is Gourav Gupta, who was an expert in the tendering process,’’ he said.
Narayanaswamy said such a scam would not have happened without the notice of the CM and Energy Minister KJ George. Both Siddaramaiah and George should resign, the BJP leader demanded.