Follow up on anomalies in highway construction works : No action taken against defaulters yet
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 11 2016 :
The question now is,
why has the whip not been cracked.
After
The Sangai Express
ran a story under the
heading, 'Anomalies plague highway
construction work' in the July 27 edition, it
was clear that M/s Raghava Construction, a
Hyderabad based work agency had not
deposited any money as Bank Guarantee.
Instead it has come to light that on
May 18, 2015, the office of the Addi-
tional Chief Engineer -1 of the State
Public Works Department had received a
written intimation from the office of the
Manipur Rural Bank that an amount of
Rs 1,36,45,126; Rs 2,23,28,314; Rs
1,11,24,276 and Rs 1,76,75,102 was
deposited as bank guarantees on May 12,
2015.
Talking to
The Sangai Express
a well
placed source said that on further
verification and investigation, Manipur
Rural Bank negated the earlier letter and
wrote to the Superintending Engineer of
the National Highways Circle, PWD,
Manipur that no such bank Bank
Guarantees were issued by the bank and
no such record is available in the bank's
system.
The communication from the bank to
the SE of PWD was sent on July 5 this
year, said the source and questioned why
has no action been taken up against the
defaulters till date.
After
The Sangai Express
published
the expose' on July 27 this year, the
Superintending Engineer of PWD filed an
FIR against M/s Raghava Constructions
and Manipur Rural Bank.
The FIR was filed before the Officer-
Charge of Imphal police station on August 8 this year, said the source.
However even after a lapse of three
days there is nothing to suggest that some
action has been taken up against the
defaulters.
What is stopping the Government from
cracking the whip against the defaulters,
asked the source and added that the matter
cannot be allowed to simply fade.
The complaint in the FIR described
the offence of the defaulters as
'forgery for purpose of cheating, using
a forged document and cheating
dishonestly inducing delivery of
property.'
The amount was meant for
different works including Mao-Maram-
Imphal and Imphal-Moreh section of
NH-2 .