Mudassir Kuloo
Srinagar, Dec 1: Government has ordered a probe into the alleged wrongdoings by the Jammu and Kashmir Projects Construction Corporation (JKPCC) over the years.
The four member fact finding committee is headed by Principal Secretary Planning, Development and Monitoring Department, and has to submit the report by December 26.
As per the government order, the committee has to look into the manner awarding of contacts to contractors without following “transparent” tendering procedures.
The order says that it has to look into diverting funds from one project to another leading to a large “number of incomplete projects, whose funds have been received but diverted elsewhere”. It also has to probe into irregularities in appointments at various levels, including that of the managing director and inefficiency in functioning and huge time and cost overruns in project implementation.
A source in General Administration Department said that probe has been ordered after the Governor’s office received a complaint from a former vice-chairman of JKPCC that a former minister had allotted contracts to “blue-eyed persons”.
The complainant had said that it was noticed that the minister on “verbal directions has allotted the prestigious and projects of highly importance to some blue eyed persons who do not have experience in the construction field without tenders or following the codal procedure”.
“The works of high magnitude are being allotted to these persons in-violation of rules and regulations while as the works of very meagre magnitude are subjected to e-tendering to befool the masses,” the complainant had said.
The former vice-chairman had demanded that there was a need to constitute a fact finding committee who shall investigate such matters and submit its report to Governor so that the government exchequer and the money of masses was not “looted anymore”.
The complainant said that issue was also raised and agitated in the meeting of board of directors of JKPCC on May 9, 2018.
