MARGAO
The Congress Party has charged the government with "wholesale loot and corruption" during the Viksit Goem/IEW event held in February during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At a media briefing, Congress leader Savio Coutinho referred to the Rs 120 crore expenses shown as incurred towards the 33 works executed, with 23 of these works being executed without following codal formalities. He said there is sufficient video evidence with news channels showing the place where the helicopter of the PM landed. “Except for a concrete ramp from the landing point to the vehicle point, no other significant work was executed, yet the PWD shows an expenditure of Rs 52.63 lakh,” he claimed.
He added: “The place where the makeshift bus stand was set up was already levelled and also used as a parking lot during the National Games. However, the PWD showed an expenditure to the tune of 46.92 lakhs for the development of this location. In addition, expenditure of Rs 41.32 lakhs is shown towards the erection of pandals at this temporary bus stand, for nine days”.
Coutinho further charged that the work for providing hotmix carpet for the KTC bus stand was covered through a work tendered earlier, worth around Rs 70 lakh. He said, however, another work is now being claimed to have been executed (including bus depot) for a whopping amount of Rs 6.38 crores.
Apart from the hotmix carpet work of the KTC bus stand, he said another two works are shown as executed -- repairs of the bus stand at a cost of Rs 31.70 lakhs, and improvement of infrastructure around the KTC bus stand for Rs 70.84 lakhs. “The actual infrastructure improvement done by this contractor was limited to the cutting of the beautiful banyan trees along the main road, and some more trees that were located behind the stage from where the PM addressed the meet,” he said.
"The work of providing hotmix carpet for the SGPDA parking lot in front of Inox is another case in point as the expenditure shown here is a huge amount of Rs 9.34 crores,” Coutinho charged further.
While charging the PWD of suppressing information by not providing the measurement book sheets of the works executed, Coutinho challenged the department and the government to come clear on this charge of corruption and "prove us wrong".
"We are yet to get information about the expenditure incurred towards the meeting pandal, food catering and other expenses incurred, which may further add up to the scam," Coutinho said.
