Nuapada/Khariar Road: A contractor has managed to bag contracts for four road projects under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) by submitting forged documents.
The irregularities were unearthed recently by one of the contractor’s competitors though an RTI query.
According to reports, four tender notifications were published for maintenance of roads under PMGSY in Padmapur division of the rural development (RD) department. Chaitanya Majhi was one of the five bidders who put up their bids for the projects.
The offers of four contractors were rejected on the ground that they didn’t have ‘similar nature of works’ certificate while the tenders were finalised in Majhi’s favour.
Suspecting some misconduct, Ghasiram Tandi, one of the bidders, sought detailed information from the executive engineer of the RD department, the issuing authority, in March to know whether such an experience certificate was issued to any other contractor.
Responding to the query, information officer Ambikeya Mishra, in a letter, said though two such certificates were issued to two contractors of Nuapada, Chaitanya Majhi was not among them.
The RTI disclosure revealed that Majhi submitted a forged certificate to bag the contract.
However, the officials went ahead to sign an agreement with Majhi ignoring Tandi’s complaint in this regard.
Majhi has already started the construction work and the officials only protected his interests despite several complaints, Tandi told reporters Sunday and demanded a high-level probe into the wrongdoing.
When contacted, Padmapur division executive engineer Ramgopal Kalikata said he took charge recently.
Though he is aware of the complaint, he cannot do anything as the decision was taken at the top level, the engineer claimed.
