Provisions aimed at benefiting the scheduled tribe and caste contractors can be misappropriated in various ways by those who do not belong to these categories.
The system of Power of Attorney (PA) is one of the methods through which the non-ST/SC contractors in Nuapada district take tenders of construction works and reap the benefits meant for the SCs and STs. The benefits here are 50 per cent concession on Ernest Money Deposit and Initial Security Deposit (EMD and ISD) and 50 per cent concession on Performance Security Deposit. Instead of 20 per cent deposit of agreement cost, they would have to deposit 10 per cent.
The case of Hasut Sabar of Gandabaheli village in Sinapali block can be taken as an example. Hasut is a landless tribal youth belonging to BPl category. He works as a driver under Bikash Meher of the same village for which he is paid Rs4,000 per month. Hasut’s wife is a daily wage earner. Their dwelling place is an old mud house in a small piece of land allotted to his father by the Government long ago.
Information under RTI Act reveals Hasut is a registered ‘B’ class contractor and at present is doing Government works worth more than crores of rupees. He has taken tenders of construction of two 100-seated tribal hostel buildings - each with an estimated cost of Rs50 lakh from the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). In addition, he has also been allotted tender of other construction works worth Rs22 lakh. But Hasut is not aware of all these details. “I don’t know anything. My employer Bikash Meher does everything,” said Hasut.
He did not even give me my pass book when I needed that to apply for a house under IAY, he added. Rajeswari, Hasut’s wife is, however, very much aggrieved. “I told him not to work with Bikash, but he did not listen,” she said.
Bikash Meher does everything by the virtue of a Power of Attorney signed by Hasut on March 15, 2014. The PA, however, is ambiguous and lacks clarity due to typological mistakes. It nowhere says that Bikash is authorised to operate in favour of Hasut; still he (Bikash) has been accepted by the Government departments as the PA holder, allowing him to sign the agreements of tenders and receiving payments from the Government.
“Power of Attorney by a tribal to a non-tribal is not illegal. As far as the mistake/ambiguity in the PA document is concerned, we have to study that before initiating action,” said Project Director of DRDA, Nuapada Pradip Naik.
The case of Hasut is not a lone example of misappropriation of facilities by contractors of general category in Nuapada district. There are many others. A detailed report on tender works taken by one Duryodhan Majhi had been published in the Pioneer on August 13, 2013.
Duryodhan, a BPl tribal, had taken works worth Rs8 crore, but he was unaware of the works he had done. One Srigopal Agrawal was doing everything in the name of Duryodhan and taking all the benefits. Duryodhan was getting Rs1,000 per month for guarding the farm of Srigopal in Dabri village of Boden block. The matter had been reported to the then KBK administrator, Tara Datt who raised question over the legality of the Power of Attorney by a tribal to a non-tribal. But, the matter died down and the system continued. More ST and SC people have been added in to this list like, Manjulata Sagaria of Babebir village, Anurja Bhoi of liad village etc.
Manjulata was the legal tender holder for construction of three check dams in Kaintpadar village of Sinapali block. laxmichand Mittal as the PA holder of Manjulata did the work and took the facilities and profits. But Manjulata was made responsible for the damage, when the check dams were washed away in flood just after a month of completion of the work.