Yet another multi crore scam rattles Nagaland which, if proved, is bound to put dozens of top ranked bureacrats, PWD engineers and contractors in dire trouble. The scam to the tune of ₹5709 crore centres around the construction of a bridge over the Tizit river on Mon-Tizit Road.
According to Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation, which claimed to have unearthed the scam called it a case of blatant corruption that rocked
“The State Finance Department (Budget & Monitoring Cell) had released a whopping amount of ₹5709.94 lakhs in 2016 & 2017 for construction of the single bridge,” said the influential organization.
They claimed to have an access to evidence that initially, , ₹2854.97 lakh was released on April 17, 2017 under “Non Developmental” against construction of the same bridge where the drawal limit was valid till April 20, 2017.
But another drawal authority for the same project again released ₹2854.97 lakh on May 29, 2017. The order to release the amount was issued in supersession of the earlier order dated 17 April 2017.
“₹28.54 Cr was allowed to be drawn on or before April 20, 2017, the Finance Department issuing such belated supersession order raises a lot of questions and points to blatant corruption since this so-called supercession order in effect allows two withdrawals amounting to ₹ 57,09,94,000 Cr,” ACAUT observed.
Strangely, the project is under EE PWD (R&B) in Mon while, the drawal authority was issued in favour of EE PWD (R&B) Kohima South Division which suggests the exercise a fictitious one.
The two release orders issued in April 17 and May 29, 2017 were under “Non-Developmental,” which is unheard of. According to the organization, as per RTI informations, expenditures are incurred under Non-Plan/State Plan/CSS etc but “Non-Developmental” is a new term coined by the authorities to simply fool the public and draw public money.
They maintain that with the roads in Nagaland at a very deplorable condition, the government drawing fictitious bills over the same project repeatedly is a criminal offense.
On the other hand, the clearance of pending bills would indicate that the construction of the bridge has been completed. However, surprisingly, amount of ₹ 1251.90 was released on October 20, 2016 against clearance of pending bills for “Construction of 34.00M Long Steel Concrete Composite bridge over river Tikang on Mon-Tizit Road”
“If the clearance of pending bills alone could amount to more than ₹ 12 crore then the earlier amount paid for construction of the bridge could well run into hundreds of crores of rupees,” said the organization.
ACAUT asked the authorities to publish the names of the engineers, contractors and firms involved in the entire process.
If further asked PWD authority to justify the bridge construction and the amount involved it before moving police with a formal complaint and asked chief minister TR Zeliang to freeze the amount released against the project.
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