MLA alleges misuse of District Mineral Fund in Sundargarh, Odisha

The MLA said the amount spent was huge as there already existed a paved road constructed by the Works department in the area.

MLA Jogesh Singh Photo | Express

ROURKELA: The state government has admitted that a whopping Rs 50.54 crore was spent on construction of a 5 km stretch of road in Sundargarh town with funds from the District Mineral Fund (DMF).

Replying to a question by Sundargarh MLA Jogesh Singh in the Assembly, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on August 22 had said as per information received from the DMF, Sundargarh, a road was constructed from the Government College to Sankara for Rs 50.54 crore.

The chief minister said the DMF had agreed with NBCC (India) Ltd, a Central PSU for the construction of the road. He clarified no report of inferior quality of work has come to the notice of the government.

However, Singh said the government should conduct a credible inquiry to ascertain if the same work would have cost half the amount if it had been undertaken by the Works department.

The legislator said a concrete four-lane project of the 5.45 km road called Sankara bypass from Parijat Park via Government College to Sankara on the outskirts of Sundargarh town was taken up from February 2020 for exclusive movement of coal-laden heavy vehicles from the mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Hemgir block without entering the town.

He said if initial reports are to be believed then over Rs 52 crore was sanctioned from the DMF and NBCC (India) Ltd as the project management consultant (PMC) had floated a tender in February 2020 for around Rs 49.5 crore. Jharkhand-based Ultima Construction had bagged the contract with an agreement value of around Rs 42.20 crore for laying the four-lane concrete road while the rest of the amount was earmarked for shifting of utilities, private land acquisition and other expenses.

The MLA said the amount spent was huge as there already existed a paved road constructed by the Works department in the area. The concrete four-lane road was built on the paved road. He said around 95 per cent of the work has been completed and the Sankara bypass road is already in use. No technical expertise is required to gauge the poor quality of work, he alleged.

Singh said in the first place the new four-lane project should not have been funded by the DMF. Back in 2020, the then Sundargarh collector had misused his authority to grant DMF funds for non-deserving projects, he alleged.