CUTTACK: The Cuttack district unit of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA) has demanded a Vigilance probe into alleged irregularities and corruption in the construction of a road from Utkal Apartments to Kusumadevi Women’s College in ward no-53 of the city.
Addressing mediapersons, coordinator of Cuttack district unit of OSAA Jitendra Sahoo, said as per the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), the file containing details of a tender floated in 2019 for the construction of the road at an initial estimated cost of Rs 37,01,024, is missing.
The tender was awarded to one Sushant Kumar Behera at a 7 per cent excess rate amounting to Rs 39,60,126. Due to sub-standard work, the newly constructed road had developed cracks after six to seven months following which Sahoo had sought information on the work through RTI from CMC.
The civic body authorities did not respond to the RTI query for two years. After the RTI plea was brought to the notice of Odisha Information Commission on August 2 last year, the CMC officials informed that the file containing details of the project was missing. The officials also stated that the estimated cost of the work had escalated from Rs 39 lakh to Rs 41.86 lakh.
“If the file went missing, then why an FIR was not filed against the official concerned who was the custodian of the file. We suspect massive corruption and demand a Vigilance probe,” said Sahoo. Among others, Mo Kataka Surakhya Manch president Akhay Panda, RTI activist and former corporator J Kameswar Rao were present in the press meet.