M A I N   N E W S

Work completed before opening of bids
Varinder Singh and J.S. Malhotra
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 13
Have the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation authorities become so efficient that they can get the job of laying of a road and beautification of a chowk, involving about Rs 40 lakh, accomplished at the hands of a particular contractor without even waiting for the opening of tenders floated by none but by the civic body itself?

The answer seems to be in affirmative if the half-laid Devi Talab road and half done electrification of the Ambedkar Chowk is to be considered, which, provides a peep into a big racket, involved in the finalisation of contract worth crores of rupees, allegedly operated by influential contractors in connivance with politicians and officials even before the bids are sought through the newspapers.

Though practically half of the work has been completed towards the laying of the Devi Talab road and the electrification of the Ambedkar Chowk and both of the projects were inaugurated last week by the Punjab Local Bodies Minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, the bids for the two works are scheduled to open on June 26, as per the advertisements inserted by the civic body in various newspapers of June 7. This has exposed an alleged racket under which contracts, not only worth lakhs but worth crores of rupees are being fixed before hand and the inviting of bids through tenders has become nothing but merely a formality by the civic body high-ups. This has also caused resentment among contractors, who, however, seem to be preferring not to divulge further details for obvious reasons, even as a senior Congress minister quipped that such developments were against the letter and spirit of the movement against corruption initiated by the Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh.

Interestingly, when The Tribune team reached the spot near the Devi Talab Temple road, it found that road had already been carpeted from Doaba College Chowk to the Adda Tanda Railway crossing, while electrification and the installation of fancy lights was nearing completion at Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar Chowk. Residents said the contractors had suspended the work and moved away machinery like road rollers and paving machines last night, apparently, after knowing that media had got a wind of what was going on. What was more intriguing was that the Punjab Local Bodies Secretary, Mr Sarvesh Kaushal, had written to all four civic bodies on May 2 that no new development work was to be initiated till the clearance of old payments of contractors. The civic body reportedly owes a whopping Rs 5.5 crore to the contractors. The initiating of the work clearly indicated that there was no coordination between the high-ups of the Local Bodies Department and the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation. Interestingly, an SE was suspended by the Punjab Local Bodies Department in 1997 after he had allegedly got the job of laying of water lines near the residence of former Punjab Minister Manoranjan Kalia even without calling bids for the job.

When contacted, the civic body Commissioner, Mr Jagjit Singh, explained that the rules specified that if a particular work had already been done by some contractor at higher cost in the past, the same could be allotted to a new contractor if the latter was ready to undertake the job at rates less than the old ones. He, however, could not explain what was the need of inserting advertisements by incurring thousands of rupees if the works could be allotted by the authorities according to their whims and fancies.