New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch has registered a case regarding corruption in the desilting of drains, officials said on Friday.
According to the officials, they received a letter on Wednesday from Delhi government’s vigilance department regarding corruption in desilting work carried out during 2021-22 to 2024-25 under south-west road-I (SWR-I) and south-west road-II (SWR-II), divisions of the PWD.
The alleged PWD officials had manipulated the actual lengths of the drains to inflate the bills in various works, which unjustifiably benefitted the contractor. Fraudulent payments have been made to the contractor for non-existent works by fabrication and false certifications by PWD officials, Joint Commissioner of Police (ACB) Madhur Verma said.
Overlapping of works by including desilting of the same area in two different tenders issued by the PWD, resulting in double payment to the contractor for the same work. A single contractor has been awarded multiple tenders at highly inflated rates by manipulating the bids and violating the contract conditions, Verma said.
Bills related to desilting works were inflated by showing the use of super sucker machines whereas, in reality, the cleaning was done manually, he said.
Serious irregularities and abuse of power on the part of the PWD officials by issuing seven separate notice invite tenders (NITs) unlawfully. Further, actual tender costs in these NITs were highly inflated by including extra items and deviations, he said.
Over the span of four years, fraudulent payments totalling around Rs 78.40 crore have been directed to a single contractor, Verma stated.
In the instant reference, many serious allegations of misuse of public funds and blatant disregard towards established tender norms, etc. have been levelled for the work of desilting in SWR-I and SWR-II division of PWD, they said.
The complaint stated that the contractor was actively involved in this matter in connivance with other known/unknown PWD officials/public servants/private persons etc. which resulted in a significant financial loss to the government exchequer, the officials said.
The ACB has registered a case under section POC Act and Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in the instant matter. Investigation in underway to unearth the whole conspiracy and fixing the role/culpability of known/unknown PWD officials/public servants/private persons involved in the matter, they added.
Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has ordered a probe by the ACB into allegations of corruption and misuse of public funds to the tune of nearly Rs 80 crore by the PWD in carrying out desilting work in Palam area, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday. PTI NIT NB
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