VB books contractor, two working, 4 retired officials

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau( VB) has registered a case against a contractor and six senior officers of the department, including four retirees, in its probe over alleged irregularities in the allotment of tenders.

Disclosing this here on Friday, a spokesperson of the state VB said a case under Sections 13(1), 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act ,1988, and 406( breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security ),468( forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120- B( criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Pen al Code (IPC) has been registered at VB police station, SAS Nagar, against contractor Gurinder Singh, executive engi neers Gulshan Nag pal, Baj rang L al Sing la, retired chief engineers Paramjit Singh Ghuman, Harvinder Singh, Gurdev Singh Minah, retired sub-divisional officer Ka minder SinghDeol and others.

He said it has been found that in the last seven-eight years, senior officials of the Irrigation department have misused their official positions and in connivance with G ur in der, have caused huge loss to the state by twisting rules or regulations, not adhering to the prescribed procedure for e-tendering, by making tailor made terms and conditions to benefit Gurinder.

He told that officials by clubbing minor works to make them major through leaking official secrecy to Gurinder in the development works worth ₹1,000 cr ore, which were allotted to him at rates which were 10-50% higher as compared to the departmental rates. He said that role of chief engineer (canals) Pushpinder Garg, who is also the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the Irrigation department, would also be probed as he had received several complaints against G ur in der but did not take any action.

He said that VB teams has conducted searches at various places for investigation as the contractor has amassed huge wealth and acquired more than 30 properties worth ₹100 crore illegally in Chandigarh, Mohali, Ludhiana, Patiala and Noida.

It was also noticed that during 2006-07,annual income of Gurinder was only ₹4.74 crore and it swelled to around ₹300 crore in 2016-17.

During the probe, it was found that rates charged by Gurinder for works allotted to him were more than the rates prescribed by the department, whereas rates charged by other contractors have been found to be 20 to 30% less than rates of Gurinder.

He claimed it shows that excess amount charged was pocketed by the accused irrigation officials. Even the engineers of Irrigation department have not complied with the decisions taken in the meetings chaired by the ministers, he added.

During January 2017, just before imposition of election code of conduct, two major works were allotted to Gurinder on agreement basis by deleting some important clauses in gross violation of rules or regulations.

PROBE OVER ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES IN THE ALLOTMENT OF TENDERS