Petlawad (Madhya Pradesh): Petlawad people's long wait to get a well-equipped garden may extend further as financial irregularities is rampant in the name of development of the garden here. According to information, a garden which was supposed to develop on the land meant for government hospital and library for an expense of Rs 39 lakh, turned into a dumping ground.
Sources claimed that the authority already made a payment of Rs 47 lakh, more than Rs 8 lakh of the sanctioned amount to the development agency. Locals claimed that even if the people had just seen the baby train, it would have seemed that the garden would be completed sooner or later, but in the garden, Rs 47 lakh were paid without any work.
It is also a shocking fact that where the process of construction of the garden was done, the land was in the name of government hospital and library. But due to the lack of land, the new hospital building with 100 beds was built 2 kilometre away from the village.
According to information, on May 1, 2002, the then municipal council passed a proposal for the construction of a garden on the land reserved for a government hospital and library for Rs 39 lakh, whose tender was published in a newspaper on April 24, 2002, a week before the proposal was passed in the council.
After this, one Indore-based company Navratna Corporation gave three quotations in the name of Ashish Sales Indore and Mini Corporation, in which the council approved the construction of Navratna Corporation's garden. The fact is that after the approval of Rs 39 lakh, a payment of Rs 47 lakh was made to the construction company.
As per the tender condition, garden booking room, electric room, construction of huts in the park, dressing and b boundary wall, gate and other developments to be done by the company along with family train track construction for kids train, platform construction, underground tank, lawn development, fountain waterfall. But nothing was done.
It is a surprising fact that despite installing only minimal equipment in the garden, on September 3, 2002, a recommendation to pay Rs 12 lakh to Navratna Corporation was made by the then chairman Radha Manohar Bhatewara. Similarly on 3 October 2002, Rs 9.95 lakh and on January 2, 2003, Navratna Corporation gave a bill of Rs 5 lakh for kids train, which was also paid. In the name of development, the company put two slides in the garden which is now reduced to scrap.
When contacted, municipal council’s chief municipal officer Rajkumar Singh Thakur said that the case is not in his knowledge as he is just posted here. He will be able to say anything only after going through the details of the terms and conditions.
