Central Vigilance Bureau claims construction work is ridden with corruption worth Rs 20 crore at least; contractors not pulled up yet
Central Vigilance Bureau claims construction work is ridden with corruption worth Rs 20 crore at least; contractors not pulled up yet
The Commonwealth Games (CWG) are still more than a month away, but the fa ade has started to crumble.
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| The newly inaugurated Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi where the 2010 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held between October 3-14. pic/afp |
After Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar expressed his displeasure on CWG being held in Delhi it is the Central Vigilance Bureau (CVC) which is digging graves of the Games organisers and contractors.
According to initial enquiries conducted by the CVC, the Games are ridden with corruption worth Rs 20 crore at least. Enquiries carried out by Chief Technical Examination Wing of the CVC has named all the central and state government originations involved in corruption.
The agencies named in the enquiry are Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Public Works Department (PWD), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and RITES.
The corruption charges range from bidding higher prices for the projects, poor quality of construction work to awarding contracts to ineligible agencies. "According to the CVC, these agencies have escalated the price of work on flimsy grounds. In some cases, they have demanded more money citing delays in the project and etc," said an informed official on condition of anonymity. Recently, CVC also collected samples of the construction works carried out at various CWG locations and found glaring faults in the civil and engineering aspect of the projects.
PWD is emerging as the biggest defaulter with five out of total 14 CWG projects. While NDMC, CPWD, DDA and MCD are responsible for two projects each, RITES which s responsible for only one project too could not escape from the enquiry for its works on rugby ground at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University.
After finding the initial faults CVC has decided to re-examine all the tenders and procurement related works assigned to all the agencies and sub-contracts. In some cases, the agencies have escalated prices by citing factors like transportation cost for the labourers but the workers for the entire span of the works were camping right on the site.
The agencies who have got CVC's rap for shoddy work however, said that they have not got any information from the CVC so far. "I have not got any such letter," said MCD Commissioner, KS Mehra.
The NDMC had a similar response. "I will have to check. But as far as I know we have not got any such letter," added NDMC spokesperson. PWD Engineer in chief, Rakesh Mishra also said he has not received any letter so far.
