Gomti river front scam Gomti river front scam, even after four years, influential away from JD’s investigation

Lucknow
When will the investigation of the Gomti River Front scam reach the elders? … even after four years this question remains. In the report of the three-member inquiry committee regarding the river front (on the basis of which the FIR was registered at the Gomti Nagar police station), many questions were raised on the role of the then Irrigation Minister to the then Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary Irrigation and Principal Secretary Finance. .

But even after four years, the needle of investigation into the scam is only revolving around the nominated engineers. However, the committee’s inquiry report had revealed how the people responsible for this project of more than 1500 crores closed their eyes and ears in front of corruption and disturbances. It was clearly stated in the report that the officers involved in the High Level Monitoring Committee (Task Force) and the engineers associated with the work are fully responsible for the disturbances in the construction of the River Front.

Task force formed, did not raise any objection
As soon as the plan for the construction of the River Front was approved, in view of its size, a task force was formed on 25 March 2015 under the chairmanship of the then Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan. Apart from the Chief Secretary, the then Principal Secretary Irrigation Deepak Singhal, the then Chief Engineer of the Irrigation Department, Head of the Department and Chief Engineer were involved. This committee held 23 meetings regarding the project.

Deepak Singhal made 20 to 25 visits to the construction site but did not find any irregularities or irregularities. The budget of every work related to the scheme increased by six to eight times, tenders kept going against the rules, even after the refusal, the budget of one work continued to be used for other work, but the responsible kept a blind eye. The committee, in its report, had said that it is inconceivable that no checks and balances system is visible in such a huge project, so that the expenditure over and above the approved budget can be prevented anywhere against the rules.

Questions were also raised on the role of then principal secretary finance and later chief secretary Rahul Bhatnagar. In fact, first the Irrigation Department had sent a revised budget of 747.49 crore and then 1990.24 crore for this project. Which was reduced to 1513.51 crore after examination by the Finance Expenditure Committee. It was approved by the cabinet on 25 July 2016. According to the report, the expenditure continued to increase by eight to ten times the approved budget and more than 40 percent of the project work was never done. Expenditure in excess of the approved budget continued to be incurred without permission. But the Task Force and the Finance Expenditure Committee did not object or pay attention to it.

More expenditure on the orders of the task force
Some of the engineers whose statements were taken during the investigation had said that the excess expenditure and payment were made by crossing the limit because there were instructions from the monitoring committee to finish the work soon. Under the guise of CM’s dream project and completion of the work soon, many works were completely abandoned, while they were approved in the project, while progress was slow in some works and the budget of the abandoned works was spent in other works. No permission or approval was taken for this.

Foreign trips made on government money
For information about channelization and technology of rubber dam, the then Irrigation Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan, Principal Secretary Irrigation Deepak Singhal and senior departmental engineers visited the countries of China, Japan, Hungary, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Traveled to South Korea and Austria. It was mentioned in Date and Events.

But when the inquiry committee had asked for the notes and minutes related to these visits from the departmental officers, they did not provide them. Reminders were also given to him several times in this regard. Government money was spent on these visits but these allegations also did not come under the scanner.

Responsible did not pay attention to these lapses
– Model study work not done
– No international organization Construction Project Management Consultancy was selected to check the quality of work
– The work of risk mitigation and risk analysis was not done by specialist technical institute
– Diaphragm wall, seat piling, geo grid, geotextile, soil stabilization and erosion control mat techniques were used but before getting it done, no high level technical institute was weighed, whereas there is a lot of difference in technology and cost in such work .
Before the construction of rubber dam, technical survey was not done whether it is needed or not.
– Technical Audit Committee (TAC) was not formed to test the work