The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, July 1, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Minister versus Secretary
“Success” project gets “waterlogged”
By P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH: The drainage and anti-waterlogging project in the south-west districts of Punjab is almost complete, funds for which came from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) out of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

NABARD has sanctioned four drainage projects involving a total financial outlay of Rs 242.86 crore and RIDF assistance of Rs 155.23 crore.

This achievement is being touted as a “success story” of the specially created Gidderbaha division. Once totally shattered the agriculture-based economy and rural life is being restored and restructured as a consequence of the works undertaken as part of the project.

Even as the menace of waterlogging appears to recede and a new ray of hope spread across the fields and towns of Malout-Muktsar-Abohar, the Minister of Irrigation, Mr Janmeja Singh Sekhon, and the Principal Secretary, Irrigation and Power, Mr Bikramjit Singh, are waterlogged.

They are now working at cross-purposes. Their dual command and communication has, on the one hand, baffled the department officials and engineers .On the other hand , it has rung an alarm bell in NABARD which only the other day had sent a high-level team to “see” the success story there. The aim was to replicate it in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Sources told TNS today that given the tug-of-war between the Minister and the Secretary, NABARD is already thinking whether to finance more of the rural development projects or not in Punjab.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is seized of the matter and issues involved. He has had a brief word with Mr Sekhon. He has also spoken to Mr Bikramjit Singh. The Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Mann, already has before him the Minister's recommendation on suspension of four engineers: Superintending Engineer, Mr H.S. Virdi, Executive Engineer, Mr A.K. Batta, Sub-Divisional Officer, Mr Rajinder Singh Sathi and Junior Engineer, Mr M.K. Mittal.

Mr Mann, on his part, has not, so far, contacted Mr Bikramjit Singh.

Mr Badal will be out of the state for few days. The stand — off between the Minister and the Secretary will be taken up only on his return from Chennai. As is his wont, the Chief Minister is ever hesitant to talk of such unsavory developments. He hopes such matters will get sorted out on their own. Insiders say the matter is, however, different now. On the one side are political consideration. On the other side are administrative issues. The latter has become all the more knotty due to the reported equation between Mr Bikramjit Singh and the Chief Minister, who had picked him up as his Principal Secretary in 1997. The rest is all history now; that chapter is not closed, not yet.

Mr Sekhon has reportedly “by-passed” his Secretary. He is entitled to do so. When the Rules of Business get mired in controversy it is the Chief Secretary who intervenes. The Minister expects him to do so in this case. But investigation by TNS has revealed that at no stage any file either on the suspension of the engineers or the question of corruption in the project area was marked to the Principal Secretary or to the Additional or the Special Secretary.

TNS has in its possession two short notes sent by the Additional Secretary, Mr Samir Kumar, and the Special Secretary, Mr B.R. Banga, to the Principal Secretary. Both have stated that they did not receive any communication from the Minister regarding transfer of certain officers relating to different administrations out of Malout and Muktsar.

Most of the transfers and promotions took place when the Secretary was away to the USA on two months leave. The wholesale transfers affected the functioning of the department particularly so in the Gidderbaha division where certain paper work had to be completed, say sources.

It is also reliably learnt that some of the contracts given out by the Drainage department have been cornered by close relations of some of the Ministers in the recent past upsetting the levers of power.

There have been media reports on the manner in which the drainage works and anti-waterlogging operations were conducted in the project area. These at times did cast a shadow of doubt over the manner the execution was done.

Given the enormity of the project engineers, contractors and administrative officials playing of the usual tricks of the trade by them is neither denied nor ruled out in knowledgeable circles. Most of the works were completed during the tenure of Mr Sikandar Singh Maluka, who was Minister of State, Irrigation. After he was elevated the Irrigation portfolio was given to Mr Sekhon.

The project involved digging of over 400 km of drains, construction of three acquaducts, 943 water course crossings, 119 village road bridges, two railway crossings, 292 field path crossings, 24 drainage crossings etc. Besides nearly 500 tubewells had to be sunk along the Rajasthan and Sirhind feeders where from excessive seepage due to economy-oriented design aberrations caused major havoc. Moreover, these canals were built across the natural surface drainage towards the Sutlej. That got blocked resulting in waterlogging.

“You know how the system operates. One has to pay commission down the line at every step when money matters are involved. Nevertheless there is a sense of achievement the manner in which the project has been completed, almost”.

As a consequence of the “success” achieved, the state did not have to pay compensation for crop failure to farmers in the project area 1999 onwards. A sum of Rs 72 crore was paid in 1997-98. For the drains and link-drains that have been dug up a sum of Rs 100 crore is yet to be paid to the farmers through whose land these cross. So far just Rs 10 crore has been paid. “Rather than rewarding the engineers involved who completed a difficult task in record time punishing them without basis is not comprehensible”, remarked an official who knows inside out of the present tiff between Mr Sekhon and Mr Bikramjit Singh.

Thus the Chief Minister has before him a delicate task to perform since the project area is in his pocketborough.