BHUBANESWAR: After the Congress, the State unit of BJP on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the scam in construction of Gurupriya bridge to connect cut-off areas of Malkangiri district alleging gross violation of Odisha Public Works Department (OPWD) code and other guidelines.A delegation of BJP led by State president Basanta Panda met Governor Ganeshi Lal at the Raj Bhavan here and apprised him about the irregularities in execution of the project as pointed out by the Principal Accountant General (PAG). “As disclosed in the letter of PAG to the State Government, the Works department has made excess payment of Rs 74.19 crore to the contractor,” the delegation informed the Governor.
The bridge is situated in a scheduled area which is subject to the control and administration of the Governor. The matter requires to be probed by an independent agency to bring out the truth. As the Centre has substantially funded the project, it comes under the domain of the CBI, the BJP delegation said and urged the Governor to direct the State Government to hand over the matter to the Central investigating agency for proper inquiry.
The delegation informed the Governor that the alleged excess payment has been made by deviating from the analysis of rates and estimates prepared by the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with undue lump sum provision of Rs 24 crore for hiring barges and Rs 4 crore for launching girders besides provision of excessive overhead charges. Addressing the media, Panda said the Governor assured the delegation that he will take action on the matter soon.
On the other hand, the BJD dismissed the demand for a CBI probe into the matter. Stating that there has been no irregularities in execution of the project, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said the estimate of the bridge was decided following the guidelines of the Centre. Alleging that the BJP is trying to make an issue out of it, Patra said the Works department will reply to the points raised by the PAG in time.