Demolition first, re-construction next
OVERFLOWING WATER BODIES SUBMERGE LOW-LYING AREAS
“Pre-monsoon preparedness” is the golden goose for civil contractors. Every year they bag lucrative contracts from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and due to poor oversight by the municipal corporation, get inflated bills passed and rake in a hefty profit.
This year the GHMC has shelled out `27 crore on monsoon preparedness towards road repairs, de-silting of nalas and cleaning of storm water drains.
The two heads under which contractors earn is labour charges and vehicles pressed into operation. GHMC pays contractors as per the standard rate per shift, that is, `1,500 for two shifts. However, contractors get unskilled labour from villages and pay them half the amount, earning a tidy profit for themselves and producing shoddy work with an unskilled workforce. The second way in which the contract is lucrative is in falsifying the amount of work done. So where 10 km of a drain has to be de-silted, only 6 km is cleaned but the bill is for 10 km. Contractors make a minimum of 30 per cent extra on the total bill. In April, the GHMC central zone detected the de-silting fraud. It was found that 18 contractors cheated the corporation of about `1.8 crore by producing fake weighbridge bills. The pre-monsoon work to desilt some city nalas was allocated in 2016.
The contractors manipulated the quantum of silt removed, and the number of trips they made to dispose of the silt. This way they inflated fuel and vehicle charges, and then submitted their bills in March, which is a very rushed period and could ensure that their bills were not The Bandari layout and the Reddy Avenue at Nizampet are faced with the threat of submergence in the rainy season, as over 1,000 illegal apartments have come up on encroached land in Turka Cheruvu and Amber Cheruvu. During the last monsoon, a cluster of gated communities were flooded due to faulty planning and encroachments to the twin lakes actions that obstructed the natural flow of water to the lakes.
With the result, the 4 sq. km area remained submerged for 20 days, and the state government had to evacuate the residents. Builders whose illegal constructions were demolished have not gone away. They were quick to reconstruct the multi-storied buildings. Each such flat is being sold at a discount for `15 lakh without any registration papers. While the GHMC has been able properly scrutinised. However, an internal audit exposed the scam and all 18 contractors were arrested by the Central Crime station.
These 18 contractors just got unlucky; this fraud on the taxpayer occurs in all the five zones of the corporation. A senior civic official says that the zonal heads must do the checking.
“The GHMC does not conduct weekly field visits to check on the work; they go by the quotation submitted by the contractors. Much of the work is incomplete, but the bills are released on time. The contractors mainly earn on the labour, bloated fuel bills, and fake vehicle numbers. The e-tendering system has cut the nexus between contractors and officials, where part of the kickback was given to the officer who approved the tender,” the officer added.
A part of the `27 crore disbursed this year will be for essential work such as emergency teams for clearing fallen trees and hoardings and water stagnation. The staff has to be paid on a daily basis, whether the city receives rain or not during monsoon. to remove parts of smalltime violations.
Mr Suresh Kumar, a resident of Nizampet, explained, “Reddy Avenue and Bandari layout have come up in the buffer zone of the lake. When the entire 4 square km layout was flooded in September, municipal minister K. T Rama Rao had asked officials to ensure that there would be no further encroachment and constructions. A few days after the mini-flood, GHMC began a demolition drive. But, the builders ignored the warning and, right under the nose of the gram panchayat, engaged in re-construction work. Now, these flats are being sold for `15lakh each, without registration.”
Nizampet does not fall under the municipal corporation, but under the gram panchayat headed by a TRS Sarpanch. Despite the ban, numerous apartments have come up, and they are up for sale