Bhubaneswar: The anti-corruption vigilance department of the Odisha government Thursday arrested three contractors for their alleged involvement in misappropriation of public money worth nearly Rs 3 crore in the installation of LED street lights in three different districts during the previous BJD regime, an official said.
The arrests were made after an inquiry revealed the involvement of three executants of the LED street lights in the districts of Kendujhar, Nayagada and Jajpur undertaken during 2021-22 and 2022-23.
“A joint verification revealed that the three contractors were involved in misappropriation of nearly Rs 3 crore. Three separate cases have been registered against the accused persons under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and IPC,” Vigilance ASP Anupama Mohapatra told reporters here.
The vigilance ASP said that during a thorough investigation, the three executants were found to have been awarded the contracts in three separate districts.
There are approximately 1,000 clusters (each cluster consists of 10 LED lights) in these three districts, where installations of LED street lighting were executed out of the funds received from 5th State Finance Commission’s devolution grants during 2021 to 2023.
All these clusters are being technically examined by experts to generate evidence of shortfalls and misappropriation in each cluster, the official said, adding that connected files are being seized to examine the mechanism of disbursal of funds and the connivance of government servants.
Earlier Wednesday, the Vigilance Department had deployed 24 teams comprising 81 officers, including additional superintendents of police, deputy superintendents of police and inspectors, for the probe. Twenty-seven officers have been assigned to each of the three districts.
The project, titled ‘Implementation of LED street lighting system in one village of each GP on a turnkey basis, including Comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract (CAMC)’, was funded through the State Finance Commission devolution grants under the fifth SFC, officials said.
During the preliminary inquiry, Vigilance found alleged large-scale irregularities and violations of tender guidelines. Key components, including energy meters, 500-metre cables, MCCBs, eye hooks, suspension clamps, dead-end clamps and photo-switch timers, were not installed in several cases despite bills being raised showing their installation, an official statement said.
The missing components were meant to be provided for each cluster of 10 LED lights, it said, adding that the Vigilance Department suspected that the bills were drawn fraudulently and that government funds were misappropriated by the executing agencies.
Field-level technical inspections are being conducted at 50 locations across the three districts to assess the extent of the alleged financial irregularities and determine the role of government officials and executing agencies in the project, officials said.