Jaipur: A section of Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) officials are smelling some unscrupulous activities in tender given to two companies for projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Officials stated, the tender process becomes of all the more suspicious specially after the way departmental heads handed the inquiry process of this matter.
“Not once or twice, there had been at least three complaints questioning the eligibility of the company named Shree Shyam Tubewell Co (Shahpura) and Shri Ganpati Tubewell Co. But a probe was ordered only on third occasion and the company was given a clean cheat within a short period of time. The way the department carried out the investigation raise suspicion,” said a PHED official.
Officials further claimed even the selection of official to carry out investigation on this ‘sensitive’ matter was not perfect. Following the order from one of the chief engineers, an additional chief engineer had designated an executive engineer ranked official.
“Now the executive engineer is posted Shahpura for the last two years, the same place where one of the concerned companies has its headquarters. Even earlier, the same person has served as a junior level engineer at the same place. In all the department had carried out an investigation and obtained a clean cheat from someone who are ‘close’ with the accused companies,” another official disclosed.
Officials also stated that the state government had unnecessarily made a simple issue complex in the name of an investigation. “IRCON – a central government undertaking – has raised this complaint that these two companies had produced fake certificates from IRCON to prove their eligibility. Now, the issue is to prove whether these certificates are fake or not. However, during investigation, no inputs from the central government agency had been taken,” said yet another PHED official. Officials clarified that the companies belong to three individuals headed by one from Shahpura. They used to make tubewells. But, with the implementation of JJM projects, they had also diversified their business and got several tenders.
“A similar situation had taken place in 2014. During this time finance department had ordered to lodge criminal cases. But, PHED officials only blacklisted the accused company for two to three years and forfeit the security deposit,” an official signed off.
Refuting all the claims, state PHED official had released a letter issued by IRCON CEO Vijay Shankar on April 7, 2023. The letter claims that that the certificate issued by IRCON on December 20, 2021 is true. Shri Ganapati Tubewell Company had indeed completed a project on February 27, 2021 at Mullapriyar in Kerala. The actual value of the completed work was Rs 84,38,88,419.
“It is not true that our executive engineer did not clarified with ICRON. Following our queries ICRON has issued this letter on April 7 claryfing that the company’s submitted certificate at the time of tender is not false,” stated a senior departmental official.
“Not once or twice, there had been at least three complaints questioning the eligibility of the company named Shree Shyam Tubewell Co (Shahpura) and Shri Ganpati Tubewell Co. But a probe was ordered only on third occasion and the company was given a clean cheat within a short period of time. The way the department carried out the investigation raise suspicion,” said a PHED official.
Officials further claimed even the selection of official to carry out investigation on this ‘sensitive’ matter was not perfect. Following the order from one of the chief engineers, an additional chief engineer had designated an executive engineer ranked official.
“Now the executive engineer is posted Shahpura for the last two years, the same place where one of the concerned companies has its headquarters. Even earlier, the same person has served as a junior level engineer at the same place. In all the department had carried out an investigation and obtained a clean cheat from someone who are ‘close’ with the accused companies,” another official disclosed.
Officials also stated that the state government had unnecessarily made a simple issue complex in the name of an investigation. “IRCON – a central government undertaking – has raised this complaint that these two companies had produced fake certificates from IRCON to prove their eligibility. Now, the issue is to prove whether these certificates are fake or not. However, during investigation, no inputs from the central government agency had been taken,” said yet another PHED official. Officials clarified that the companies belong to three individuals headed by one from Shahpura. They used to make tubewells. But, with the implementation of JJM projects, they had also diversified their business and got several tenders.
“A similar situation had taken place in 2014. During this time finance department had ordered to lodge criminal cases. But, PHED officials only blacklisted the accused company for two to three years and forfeit the security deposit,” an official signed off.
Refuting all the claims, state PHED official had released a letter issued by IRCON CEO Vijay Shankar on April 7, 2023. The letter claims that that the certificate issued by IRCON on December 20, 2021 is true. Shri Ganapati Tubewell Company had indeed completed a project on February 27, 2021 at Mullapriyar in Kerala. The actual value of the completed work was Rs 84,38,88,419.
“It is not true that our executive engineer did not clarified with ICRON. Following our queries ICRON has issued this letter on April 7 claryfing that the company’s submitted certificate at the time of tender is not false,” stated a senior departmental official.
