ILLEGAL CONCESSIONS AVAILED IN N’PADA MI WORKS CONTRACT

STATE EDITIONS

ILLEGAL CONCESSIONS AVAILED IN N’PADA MI WORKS CONTRACT

Saturday, 31 August 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

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Duryodhan Majhi of Dabri village in Nuapada district is a poor tribal man with two acres of agriculture land. His crop practice itself reveals that the land he owns is of marginal quality and yielding less. He has a BPL card which allows him to get 25 kg rice under PDS every month. This brings a great succor to manage the family of six persons.

But the records of the Government reveal that Majhi is very rich. He is a ‘B’ class contractor. A certificate of registration under Registration Rules, 1967 has been issued to him. He has been awarded tenders of as many as 18 construction works in past three years, with a total cost of more than Rs 8 crore. Another interesting fact is that in all of the tenders, the agreement cost is less even to the extent of 20 to 30 per cent than the estimated cost.

He has done the construction work of a project in the Minor Irrigation(MI) dept in Bartansil village with 30 per cent less cost. Likewise, the check dams in the villages of Sardhapur, Sargimunda, Mahulpada and Khaira were constructed by him at 24 to 27 per cent less cost.

“I don’t know anything about contract but I have given ‘Power Toni’ to the Seth and he does everything,” Majhi says. ‘Power Toni’ here means ‘power of attorney.’ Majhi even does not have to go to the offices to sign the tender papers of contract agreement. Nor has he ever been to the bank to withdraw money. “Power Tony” seems to have convinced him that it does everything by itself.

As Majhi is a tribal, he gets 50 per cent concession on the initial deposit of EMD (Earnest Money Deposit) and ISD. The normal rate of EMD and ISD are 1 per cent each of the total agreement cost, but for contractors of ST and SC categories, 50 per cent concession is given. Likewise, in case of additional Performance Security Deposit, also they get 50 per cent concession and instead of 20 per cent deposit of the agreement cost, they have to pay 10 per cent only. As per records, Majhi did works of about Rs 8 crore which brought him a benefit of Rs 88 lakh in last three years. But the benefit of the concession has gone to the ‘de jure contractor, the Seth.

“I am paid only Rs 1,000 per month as remuneration for guarding Seth’s firm and that is all,” says Majhi. The Seth is one Srigopal Agrawal of Khariar town, who manages all the tenders and construction activities in the name of Majhi. “A thorough investigation will reveal that dummy contractors like Majhi are many in the district. At least 80 per cent of the total contractors are dummies belonging to SC and ST categories,” say some officials of Minor Irrigation and R&B departments of Khariar.

“It is nothing but cheating the Government,” they add. On the question of maintaining the quality of work with a cost less than 20 per cent of the estimated cost, the officials say, “Quality is always compromised. An Executive Engineer of the Minor Irrigation department says, “We have reported about this in State level meetings, but the authorities are silent.”

The practice of less tender cost is more prevalent in the Minor Irrigation department which is working under the State Water Resources department. The Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP) under the same department, however, has not allowed the cost to dip so low. In building construction work, the LIIP has issued tender at 20 per cent higher rate than the quoted estimate.