Bhubaneswar: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Tuesday levelled corruption charges on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the execution of mega piped water supply projects in the state.
At a press conference here, OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak and campaign committee chairman Bijay Patnaik accused the state government of massive graft in award of tenders for the projects.
“Around 96 per cent of the projects have been given to contractors from outside Odisha. To ensure that people from outside the state get the projects, tenders have been invited combining 5 to 10 projects in one bunch/ package. As a result, local contractors are unable to qualify to participate in the tenders,” said Patnaik.
The government has bunched water supply projects covering 214 villages of Angul district in one tender worth Rs 262 crore while in Sundergarh district, one tender invited for a mega project is worth Rs 786 crore, he said, adding, “Due to this bunching, Odia contractors have failed to qualify in the tender process.”
The objective of the move is to ensure that non-Odisha contractors bag the tenders and all the kickback money exchanged between the contractors and the government will remain unknown to the locals, the Congress leader alleged.
“Who has taken the decision for bunching the project…the department secretary or the minister or the chief minister?” he asked.
Labelling it as a “mega scam” of the government, Patnaik demanded a high-level inquiry either by the CAG or Lokayukta.
Citing information given by panchayati raj minister in the state assembly, the OPCC president said only 16 out of 205 mega piped water supply (PWS) projects have been completed till now.
Due to the delay, the estimated cost of the 16 completed projects escalated to Rs 1,931 crore from Rs 1,743 crore, said Pattanayak.
Though the projects are supposed to be completed within two years of award of tenders, those were purposely delayed so that the price could be escalated and non-Odisha contractors benefit from it, he alleged.
Ruling BJD leaders were not immediately available to comment on the allegation.
PTI