Nagpur: Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B has formed a four-member committee headed by Additional Commissioner Ram Joshi to probe the Rs 12 crore benches scam. The committee will probe if there was any irregularity in procuring over 17,000 iron benches installed across the Nagpur city, according to media reports.
The other members of the committee include the Chief Engineer, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Administration), and Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Revenue).
According to reports, NMC spent over Rs 11.91 crore for installation of 17,562 benches (both concrete and iron) across the city in the last three years (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22). Preliminary investigations revealed that the civic body had purchased each bench at a cost almost Rs 3,000 over the market price. On average, NMC paid Rs 7,060 for one bench against the market rate of around Rs 4,000.
Officials from at least five departments, including Garden, Public Works Department, zonal offices, Sports, and District Planning and Development Committee, were allegedly involved in erecting the benches. Apart from these five departments, even Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) had spent funds for installation of benches.
According to the preliminary inquiry, at many places benches were installed by a particular department, while other departments too had shown the same spot in their project completion reports, thus gobbling up funds meant for development works, sources said. In a few files, it was found that benches were installed, but the concerned department failed to provide the locations where these were installed.
This data was compiled by the Superintending Engineer’s office. Now, the committee, which was given 15 days to probe, will not only cross check the locations but also verify the bills and the amount spent in erecting benches.
The civic body installs benches in public places such as gardens, religious places, markets etc for citizens to rest. The benches are installed on the recommendations of Corporators. Funds under Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Standing Committee and Weaker Sections Committee were used for this purpose.
As per the initial probe report, in 2019-20, the NMC had spent over Rs 4.44 crore to procure 6,587 benches, in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Public Works Department spent over Rs 2.95 crore and Rs 4.51 crore to procure 4,424 benches and 6,551 benches, respectively. The initial probe revealed that certain contractors were allegedly indirectly paid in lump sum after allotment of orders for benches. These irregularities were observed in almost all wards in 10 zones.
The highest number of benches — 3,200 — were installed in Hanuman Nagar Zone, followed by Gandhibagh 3,027, Dharampeth 2,278 and Mangalwari 2,172.
