Srinagar, Dec 20: The maxim ‘rules are for fools’ seems to be the hallmark of the Roads and Buildings Department in Jammu and Kashmir.
A cursory look at the official documents, furnished under the Right to Information Act, reveal that in the past two years, the Department has undertaken scores of works without inviting tenders, as the rules demand.
This has raised a question mark on the financial dealings of the Department as the works executed in violation of codal formalities amount to crores of rupees. The information has been revealed in reply to a RTI application filed by Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat, who heads the J&K RTI Movement, a non-government organization. Bhat had sought information on the list of works executed in the R&B Deptt without inviting the tenders.
The documented information, copies of which are with Greater Kashmir, reveal that hundreds of minor and major works (roughly 800) have been undertaken in Kashmir division in the past two years without inviting tenders.
According to separate information provided in the state assembly, around 1600 works have been executed by the R&B Department in Jammu region bypassing codal formalities.
In most of the cases, the rates for these works have either been fixed by Heads of the Departments or by Superintending or Executive Engineers.
While officials cite “exigency” for carrying out works departmentally, sources contest the claim, asserting that the works were allotted ‘arbitrarily’ to ‘blue-eyed persons’ under the garb of exigency.
“Under rules, there may be a provision to carry out some works departmentally in case of emergency situations like floods, heavy snowfall or any other natural disasters. But if you go through all the executed works, you will find that most of them didn’t deserve to be carried out on emergency basis when compared with other unexecuted works,” they said. Officials believe that executing works without tendering process has become a norm in the R&B Department for varied reasons. “It is all politics,” said an R&B officer, wishing anonymity. “The works are either allotted to the workers of political parties or the contractors who happen to be close to MLAs in different localities. If you go and analyze the works undertaken, you will find gross violation of construction norms and use of substandard material. But there is nobody in the department to do the investigation and see whether the works undertaken were allotted and executed as per the norms.”
Officials suggest that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah must constitute a team of eminent experts to get the executed works cross-examined. “It is the question of spending public money. Only a committee of experts can probe the matter and see if the works had been executed without following the codal procedure. The experts can monitor if such works had been executed as per the norms or not,” the officer said.
In reply to the RTI application, it has been revealed that over 150 works have been executed in the R&B Division Khannabal also without inviting the tenders. The works include construction of culverts, link roads, cement edge walls, protection walls, providing of road caution sign boards, painting of roads and improvement of road surfaces. The works cost several lakh rupees each.
While furnishing the information, the R&B Department has neither cited the grounds of emergency nor revealed how the rates had been finalized.
It has only cited the reasons which include “completion of the work in early possible time for better convenience of locals and works executed in view of urgency at site.”
The documents reveal similar situation in R&B divisions of Uri, Kupwara, Ganderbal, Srinagar, Baramulla, Budgam, Chadoora.
In most of the cases, the ‘executing agencies’ have been shown as people and not the organizations.
THE PAST PRACTICE
In February 2010, then Minister for R&B GM Saroori came under opposition attack for alleged irregularities in the department for executing works without inviting tenders.
In reply to a question by JKNPP MLA Harsh Dev Singh in the Legislative Assembly, the minister had said the department had executed at least 1589 works in Jammu region without inviting tenders “on emergency basis and that too as per delegation in Book of Financial Powers.” “If the members want that no work shall be executed without inviting tenders I will ensure the procedure but it will only lead to losses and delays,” he had said.
However, Singh had alleged that procedure was not followed while executing the works.
WILL INVESTIGATE WRONGDOINGS: MINISTER
When contacted, the Minister of State for R&B, Javed Ahmad Dar, said: “There is a book of financial powers wherein we can take up some works on emergency basis, in case they pertain to public welfare. But here too the work has to be allotted to the class contractors only to whichever category they belong. But in case any wrongdoing has taken place anywhere, I will certainly get it probed,” he told Greater Kashmir.
Pertinently, the charge of the R&B Department is presently with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
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