At a time when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is busy reviewing performances of his Ministerial colleagues on how much they have delivered in fulfilling promises made in the 2014 BJD election manifesto and the roadmap for future development, it is demanded that Patnaik also review the functioning of the Works Department which he himself heads.
The Chief Minister heads Home, General Administration, Works and Water Resources departments. The Works Department performance is in focus in view of the rampant corruption of the officials.
It is alleged that due to some officials, particularly Works Secretary Nailini Kanta Pradhan, the Works Department is in a sorry state of affairs. The collapse of under construction Jatamundia bridge over Mahanadi near Banki in Cuttack district, Netapur bridge over Kusabhadra river near Gop in Puri, bridge over Kathajodi near Trisulia in Cuttack and much awaited Gurupriya bridge in Malkangiri in last three years exposed the magnitude of corruption and use of substandard materials in executing the projects worth crores of rupees.
More so, the officials have also succeeded in covering up the mess even by not complying with the Chief Minister’s order.
“During the collapse of Jatamundia bridge, the Chief Minister had ordered an inquiry by a technical committee. But though two years have elapsed no report has submitted as yet.
The Works Secretary willfully ignored the report by only suspending one JE and one SDO who are subsequently reinstated,” said a former Works Secretary. Similarly in case of Gurupriya bridge, the technical reasons behind the collapse of its structure is yet to ascertained. Since it is a fully Central Government funded project, the State Government’s image was tarnished at a national level meeting held recently in New Delhi due to the poor performance of the Works Department. Another heart burning issue is the corruption done openly in Kathajodi bridge in Cuttack, which is funded by NABARD.
The scam of Rs35 crore in Kathajodi bridge is already a topic of discussion in all spheres and also in the last Assembly session, the Works Department gave a false reply on the issue.
The point is when the agency carrying out the project has initiated an alternative design proposal without any additional burden to the department, why the Works Department approved a proposal on July 31 last year for an excess amount of Rs11.03 crore above the agreement value of Rs94.49 crore. “This is a clear cut scam by Works Secretary with malafide intention and ulterior motive,” said a former Works Secretary. The present Works Secretary is supposed to be a junior officer as per the gradation list of Engineers, but during 2004 in spite of the negative remarks by OPSC for his out of turn promotion in superseding 20 senior engineers, he managed to get promotion through the Cabinet.