Nagpur: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s avowed campaign for ‘Swachh Shahar (clean city) and ‘Swachh Prashasan” (Transparent governance) seems to have been appreciated by one and all. But in Nagpur Municipal Corporation, scams after scams are coming to the fore under the very nose of BJP rulers and babus as well. The dirty deals are being witnessed in the civic body since the past six months. In the latest, a major ‘scam’ has been detected in the allocation of various construction works worth crores of rupees. The e-tendering or online tendering process is being ‘manipulated manually’ and some ‘favoured’ contractors are being awarded with work orders. This fact was revealed by an NMC-registered contractor L K Singh. He has warned the NMC Administration that if the wrong is not undone, he would knock the doors of courts with a PIL.
According to Singh, E-tendering was introduced sometime back to effectively curb irregularities in awarding civil works contracts. But the babus found an ingenious modus operandi to manipulate the system favour certain people, costing the NMC, and the taxpayers, crores of rupees. The babus allegedly perpetrating irregularities by “manually” scanning tender papers, DD and performance security deposits. Whoever bags the online tender is supposed to have submitted valid papers. It is mandatory for the contractor who bagged the tender to submit a set of documents submitted online to submit the same to an Executive Engineer or concerned department within five days, Singh said and alleged that the wrong is being here. “The babus misused the online bidding system for their own gain and caused losses to the civic body. The online tendering is tampered with “manually” and the tender is awarded to other favoured contractor other than the original contractor who had bagged the tender online.”
In one case, a contractor shown as “no admit” in online tendering process, was ultimately was awarded the work order. The “scamsters” favoured contractors whose bid was certain per cent below the cost set for the work. However, there were other contractors who wanted to bid in much higher per cent below the cost but could not do so because of the nexus. The NMC ended up paying more for the works because of “fraud”, said L K Singh.
Some glaring examples:
- Rs 45.85 lakh cement road construction in Shantinagar and Karunanagar under Prabhag 16:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 5
- Financially viable contractors: 5
- First minimum: Aryama Infrastructure (10.80% below)
- But contract given to Hitesh Constructions (10.90% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 32556.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor failed to submit DD & performance security in time.
- Rs 9.99 lakh cement concrete road construction from Mahendra Kirana to Yadav’s house in Ramainagar under Prabhag 2:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 5
- Financially viable contractors: 3
- First minimum: R B Yadav (21% below)
- Contract awarded to Hitesh Constructions (0.99% below)
- Loss to civic body: Rs 2.08 lakh
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Yadav did not submit DD & performance security in time so other contractor given work.
- Rs 4.99 lakh contract for installing M S Rolling in Garib Nawaz Nagar and Shivaji Nagar and sign boards in Yashodhara Nagar, Pawan Nagar and Hamid Nagar under Prabhag 3-A:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 3
- Financially viable contractors: 3
- First minimum: Kailash Suryavanshi (21% below)
- But contract given to M/s Dikshant Gajbhiye (0.999% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 1.04 lakh.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Kailash Suryavanshi failed to submit DD & performance security in time.
- Rs 45.85 lakh cement road construction behind Water Tank in Sugat Nagar under Prabhag 2B:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 3
- Financially viable contractors: 3
- First minimum: Kailash Suryavanshi (19% below)
- But contract given to M/s Hitesh Constructions (0.99% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 90004.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Kailash Suryavanshi did not submit DD & performance security in time.
- Rs 49.99 lakh cement road construction in Sarovarabad under Prabhag 3B:
- Total contractors: 9
- Technically recognized contractors: 8
- Financially viable contractors: 8
- First minimum: Sweety Constructions (17% below)
- But contract given to Hitesh Constructions (12.12% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 3 lakh.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Sweety Constructions not given work order, tenders floated afresh and Hitesh Constructions awarded contract.
- Rs 49.99 lakh cement road construction in Bamleshawari Nagar and Dhammanand Nagar under Prabhag 3B:
- Total contractors: 8
- Technically recognized contractors: 8
- Financially viable contractors: 8
- First minimum: Sweety Constructions (18.50% below)
- But contract given to M/s Bindra Constructions (12.25% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 3.12 lakh.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Sweety Constructions not given work order, tenders floated afresh and Bindra Constructions awarded contract.
- Rs 49.99 lakh cement road construction opposite Indora Bouddha Vihar under Prabhag 11:
- Total contractors: 7
- Technically recognized contractors: 5
- Financially viable contractors: 5
- First minimum: M/s Premchandra Chumal and M/s Bindra Constructions
- But contract given to Hitesh Constructions (14.4% below)
- Reason: The first minimum contractors Premchandra Chumal and M/s Bindra Constructions did not attach M-35 certificate with the tender. So their tender was cancelled and M/s Hitesh Construction given contract.
- Rs 4.99 lakh cement road construction in Bamleshawari Nagar and Dhammanand Nagar under Prabhag 3B:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 3
- Financially viable contractors: 3
- First minimum: Yuvraj Constructions (3% below)
- But contract given to Sudhakar Kumbhalkar (2.49% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 2550.
- Reason: The first minimum contractor Yuvraj Constructions did not submit DD and performance security in time.
- Rs 47.99 lakh cement road construction in Shantinagar under Prabhag 16B:
- Total contractors: 6
- Technically recognized contractors: 6
- Financially viable contractors: 5
- First minimum: Ulhas Enterprises (13.10% below)
- But contract given to M/s Hitesh Constructions (1.20% below)
- Loss to NMC: Rs 5.71 lakh.
- Reason: Shortcomings in the financial bid of Ulhas Enterprises were picked and M/s Hitesh Constructions awarded contract.
- Rs 14.47 lakh cement road construction in Manav Nagar under Prabhag 5:
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- Total contractors: 4
- Technically recognized contractors: 4
- Financially viable contractors: 3
- First minimum: M/s Hitesh Constructions (15.9% below)
- But contract given to S K Gurbaxani (0.999% below).
- Reason: The first minimum contractor M/s Hitesh Constructions was not marked in the designated list for financial bid.
The abovementioned cases related to the Zones 7 and 9 of NMC. According to Singh, the day the online tendering process came into the system, over 50 percent contracts were allegedly “manipulated” at the behest of babus.
The NMC-registered contractor L K Singh first met the then Mayor in September 2016 to draw his attention towards the corrupt practices being indulged in online tendering process. The Mayor, in turn, apprised the Municipal Commissioner and asked Singh to meet him. The Municipal Commissioner after gauging the matter, appointed the Executive Engineer Sanjay Gaekwad as probe officer to look into the matter. But the probe is still not over. Singh again met the Mayor on December 7, 2016 and apprised him about the tardy progress in the probe. Now, the matter stands where it is.
The dejected Singh, in the second week of January 2017, shot a notice to NMC Administration through senior High Court lawyer Bhanudas Kukarni. The notice warned the NMC administration that if it failed to act against the “offending” babus/contractors, he may file a PIL in the court soon.
