PANAJI
The Anti Corruption Branch of Directorate of Vigilance on Monday registered an FIR against the Benaulim strongman and five other former PWD officers in a case of alleged scam spanning across 2008 till 2011 pertaining to procurement and distribution of water tanks to the tune of Rs 1.45 crore.The former PWD minister and office bearers of Work Division 3, Altinho and Work Division 20 in Margao and Fatorda including the then principal chief engineer, superintendent engineer, chief engineer, executive engineer and junior engineer have been booked under Section 13 (i) (c) (d) read with Section 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act (criminal misconduct by public servant), 1988 and Section 34 (common intention) of IPC.Churchill was the PWD Minister between 2007 and early 2012 in the erstwhile Congress government.Around 6,511 water tanks were procured at an approximate cost of Rs 1,45,95,382, allegedly inflated as against the initial estimates.Confirming to The Goan, Superintendent of Police (ACB) Vimal Anand Gupta informed, “The procurement started and the distribution was completed even before the policy governing such a move was formulated.”Secondly, it has come to light that the PWD officers allegedly connived to accept a bid which exceeded the estimates provided in the tender document by around 25 to 30 per cent.Set procedures normally allow acceptance of final tender bids exceeding the estimates by five ore cent at the most.The complaint bringing these irregularities out in the open was received by Directorate of Vigilance in January. “We have undertaken the ground work before registering this FIR. A preliminary enquiry was conducted over six months after receiving the complaint,” SP Gupta stated.It may be recalled that the former PWD minister Alemao was taken to task over the issue of water tanks by the Opposition in March 2011 of the Goa Legislative Assembly.The then Opposition leaders including Manohar Parrikar and Damodar Naik had grilled Alemao during the question hour over the alleged water tank distribution scam.Back then, the Opposition had demanded formation of a committee headed by chief secretary, with finance secretary as a member, to probe the allegations.However, in his reply, Alemao had sought to claim that the scheme to distribute water tanks had already been formulated. But when the Opposition demanded the government to present the relevant notification of the scheme, Alemao had sought time.In his written reply in the House, Alemao had stated that the cabinet had granted ex-post facto approval for the expenditure for the distribution of water tanks and pumps. Accordingly, 4,000 tanks were provided at required spots, the House was informed.He had further stated that 124 tanks were provided after the formulation of the scheme and that around `48 lakh were spent on water tanks in financial year 2010-2011.The then Leader of Opposition Parrikar had pressed that tanks were purchased at inflated rates and that all payments were completed.
