Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): It took 14 years for Lokayukta police to register an FIR on a complaint lodged in 2010 by the then leader of opposition over alleged financial irregularities in construction of Bakud dam in Multai.
Special police establishment (SPE) Lokayukta police Bhopal has registered a case against 14 persons including 13 officials of water resources department and a contractor for allegedly incurring Rs 1.74 crore loss to the state exchequer, said the officials here on Friday.
In 2010, the then leader of opposition Jamuna Devi had taken up the matter of the alleged financial irregularity in dam construction and its tendering process and had lodged a complaint. In 2015, the police had started its investigations.
It's coincidence that the late Jamuna Devi’s nephew Umang Singhar is now Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly.
Police said that the state government in 2005 had floated a tender to construct Bakud Dam in Multia of Betul district. The contract of the dam project was given to Satish Nagpal as he had quoted around 21% less than the tender amount. The total cost of the work was around Rs 5.50 crore and the construction was to be completed within 15 months. The proposed dam was to irrigate 1,440 hectares of the area.
At the initiation of the project, Nagpal took an amount of Rs 25 lakh but he soon stalled the work citing protest by farmers claiming that they were allegedly not paid for their land acquired by the government.
Nagpal was unable to proceed with the work allegedly owing to farmers’ protest and the construction work was stalled. The department officials accepted his claim of farmers’ protest and in the 14th month they wrapped up the project.
Later, a fresh tender was floated for the project. And interestingly, Nagpal again managed to bag the tender, but this time the bid amount was raised by over 24% than the quoted tender price.
The department officials also paid Nagpal Rs 25 lakh for the ‘construction work he carried out’ earlier before quitting. All this ended incurring Rs 1.74 crore loss to the state exchequer.
Of the 13 accused officials, two have passed away
Now, 14 years on since the complaint was lodged, the Lokayukta has registered an FIR against contractor Satish Nagpal, 13 WRD officials- two of whom have already passed away and one of the officials is going to retire next month. The FIR has been registered against the then superintendent engineer DG Patidar, the then secretary and accountant ML Raghuwanshi, the then engineer in chief PK Tiwari, the then executive engineer RC Rathore, the then CE JS Thakur, the then EE RP Khare, the then EE RK Khare, the then accountant Baran Singh, the then SDO KR Dhare, deputy engineer WD Gwahde, the then DE LS Ghoshi and the then superintendent GP Daksh.
