Odisha police book three engineers for alleged involvement in road construction scam

The trio was booked under sections 420, 406 and 34 of the IPC basing on the FIR of Superintending Engineer of RD department of Jajpur and Kendrapara circle Sanjeeb Kumar Das.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

JAJPUR: Kaliapani police has booked three engineers of Rural Development (RD) department for their alleged involvement in a road construction scam. The accused are executive engineer of Jajpur division-1 Bijaya Moharana, additional executing engineer of Duburi sub division Muduli Venkat Raman and junior engineer of Tomka section Rasananda Barik.

The trio was booked under sections 420, 406 and 34 of the IPC basing on the FIR of Superintending Engineer of RD department of Jajpur and Kendrapara circle Sanjeeb Kumar Das.

According to the complaint of Das, a tender for construction of a 7.6 km long motorable road from Ashokjhar foothills to Nagada village was floated at a cost of nearly Rs 12.96 crore in 2016-17. This came in the wake of Nagada hogging headlines over child malnutrition death. The entire money was sanctioned from the district mineral foundation (DMF) fund.

The tender was awarded to Andhra Pradesh-based Haigreeva Infratech project limited. As per the agreement, the contractor or the agency was required to execute all maintenance work of the project for two years after its completion, failing which its security money was to be forfeited.

While condition of the road became bad a couple of months after its completion, Haigreeva Infratech did not carry out any maintenance work. However, the executive engineer of Jajpur division-1 released the security deposit of over Rs 65 lakh to the contractor despite the alleged irregularities in road construction work.

When the road condition worsened, the RD department sanctioned Rs 43.65 lakh for its repair and reconstruction in December, 2020 and approved its tender. But instead of floating a single tender, the executive engineer distributed the work through a number of secret tenders of Rs 5 lakh each by K-2 format without approval of the higher authorities.

The K-2 contractors carried out shoddy repair work of the road but the executive engineer cleared their payments.

After locals brought the irregularities in the road repair work to the notice of Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Rural Development Pradip Kumar Jena, the Chief Engineer of Planning and Roads was directed to inquire into the allegation.

The Chief Engineer visited the spot and found massive irregularities in the work. Subsequently, the Superintending Engineer was directed to lodged an FIR with the local police against the engineers involved in the scam.

Kaliapani IIC Sushant Kumar Dash said notices have been served on the accused engineers to report in the police station for recording their statements on Tuesday.

Illegal path

  • Tender for construction of a 7.6 km road from Ashokjhar foothills to Nagada village floated in 2016-17

  • Tender awarded to Andhra Pradesh-based Haigreeva Infratech project limited

  • Condition of the road became bad a couple of months after its completion

  • Executive engineer of Jajpur division-1 released security deposit of over Rs 65 lakhs to the contractor despite irregularities

  • Contractors carried out shoddy road repair work but the executive engineer cleared their payments

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com