Pulwama, Jan 14: At a time when the LG administration is claiming to provide transparent governance to J&K, a major streetlight scam has surfaced in southern Pulwama district with apparent imprints across the Union Territory.
Continuing the corrupt traditions in the government, the officials in the Rural Development department, Pulwama have purchased streetlights at exorbitant rates to benefit a blue-eyed contractor.
“The RDD officials have purchased the streetlights at nearly 100% increase in price without following proper procedure for tendering,” said an official.
Officials said the highest price of a street light installed by the RDD cost Rs 14000, while the Pulwama officials bought them at more than Rs 24000.
The streetlights are yet to be installed and administration has made an advance payment to the contractor.
The blue-eyed contractors in league with officials have purchased solar lights on higher rates incurring losses to Panchayat Raj Institution funds.
The rural Development Department with consent and approval of the District Development Council members and PRIs installs street lights in Panchayat Halqas out of the PRI funds in Jammu and Kashmir.
The tenders are floated by the Rural Development Department with the approval of the Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.
The DDC members in Pulwama district too approved the plan to install solar street lights in their constituencies and the plan was vetted by the ACD.
The ACD office opened the link for e-tenders on GeM portal for a particular period of time so that his blue-eyed contractors get the tenders.
They said that only companies namely Friends Sales, Mectech, JK Electronics, Hi-Technology filed the tenders while others could not file as the link was not put up for public by the ACD office.
"The link for the e-tender was put on the GeM portal during a prescribed time so that only the above favorite companies can apply. We didn't see the link," several companies and the contractors said.
As per the DDC members, they had approved the plan of nearly rupees one crore for installation of the lights and were expecting that the villages falling in their halqas will get adequate street lights.
But they were shocked to see that each light purchased between Rs 23,000 to Rs 24000 when the similar lights cost Rs 12000 to Rs 13000 in the market.
The same lights were installed by JAKEDA in Jammu and Kashmir for Rs 12000 each.
Sources further said the Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD) office has released half of the payment to the contractors before the execution of the work.
The companies have shown exorbitant cost for the lights and officials in ACD are in league with them, they added.
Following stiff resistance by the DDC members who rejected installing the lights in their constituency and Halqas, the district administration Pulwama had put on hold the process of installation of the lights.
When contacted for their comments, the majority of DDC members in the district said they have rejected the proposal because of the higher rates and loss to the PRI funds.
"We didn't agree to install the lights as they have been purchased at very exorbitant rates simply to embezzle funds meant for development," the DDC members said.
The members demand that the only option to save the public money and PRI funds is to float reverse tenders or cancel the previous tenders so that public funds are saved.
Residents of Pulwama have appealed to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate the scam. (KNS)
