Work on foot overbridges yet to begin, citizen panel alleges graft

GURGAON: Even before work on the construction of 14 foot overbridges begins, the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) have started facing corruption charges. The citizens' supervisory committee, constituted by the MCG to keep an eye on the various development projects across the city, has alleged corruption on the part of the officials of the corporations's engineering branch, by awarding tenders to their close aides.
After receiving a complaint from the residents, the financial commissioner and principal secretary of the Urban Local Bodies department, Ram Niwas, has sought an explanation from MCG commissioner Sudhir Rajpal. Last month the citizen's supervisory committee had forwarded a complaint to Niwas, alleging irregularities in the issuing of tenders to agencies on build operate transfer (BOT) basis for the construction of 14 FOB's across the city. According to the complaint, the officials did not pay heed to the legal norms while awarding the tenders.
The engineering branch has signed a contract with three companies for construction and maintenance of the FOB's. The complaint by the citizen's panel also says that the budget of construction and maintenance has been fixed to be over Rs 1 crore. As per the norms, the engineering branch officials should have first taken permission from councillors and then the application tabled for approval of the state government. The due process was not followed.
In response, the municipal corporation has said that the companies were awarded tenders for maintenance of the FOBs for 20 years, as incorporated in the contract.
"According to the contract, the annual fees that agencies have to pay for maintenance will increase by 10% every year for the first ten years. The agencies were against this policy and disagreed to it. Considering the concerns of the companies, the increase in fees were lowered to 5% for the first five years. The tenders were awarded as per the norms and the allegations against the engineering branch officials are not true. We will be sending our response to the urban local bodies department," said a senior MCG official.