Capital shame: 3 MCD engineers held for substandard road

[sidmis]

Capital shame: 3 MCD engineers held for substandard road
as reported by Ambika Pandit,TNN | 12 Sep 2008

NEW DELHI: It took four years, but the Old Rajinder Nagar RWA finally succeeded in its quest for action against MCD engineers who gave rubble in the name of a road. It started with an RTI query in 2004 and needed a wake-up call from TOI on August 20 to get the Delhi government moving.

Finally, acting on an FIR registered in 2004, the anti-corruption branch has arrested the three who allegedly engineered the scam: executive engineer A K Gupta and assistant engineers Rajesh Sharma and V Sharma of Karol Bagh Zone.

In a major crackdown, 10 other engineers were also held for allegedly being involved in construction of substandard roads and other corruption cases, inviting a threat of strike from their worried colleagues who feel they are now under siege.

This is, perhaps, the first time the nexus between contractors and MCD officials is under threat. With potholes, cracks and depressions still making your daily commute a nightmare, it's a welcome development.

It has been a long battle. S P Gupta, 78, who had filed the RTI in 2004 after he found the road from Salwan Public School to School Marg in Old Rajinder Nagar had broken down, was ecstatic. "It's a success but it has taken us four years to reach here," he told TOI.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Anti-Corruption) N Dilip Kumar acknowledged the victory of "people's power" in this case, giving full credit to the RWA. He recalled that they had received a complaint from the RWA in 2005 against the contractor, Tyagi Associates, and an inquiry had revealed that substandard material had indeed been used in constructing the road. The amount involved was Rs 140,317 and collusion between the engineers and the contractor was established when the case was registered in 2006. After that, however, the case remained buried in files.

MCD refused to part with any details — work order, estimates and budgets — when the RTI was filed in 2004. It took a rap from the Public Grievances Commission for MCD to finally open up. Since there were glaring discrepancies, PGC's help was sought to lift samples of the road. MCD lifted separate samples and sent them to Central Road Research Institute while the RWA sent its samples to Shriram Institute for Industrial Research.

Both reports were damning but the one prepared by Shriram institute revealed a deviation of around 75%, ACP Kumar recalled. The road converted from "dense carpet" to "cement concrete" had only half of the genuine material while the rest was gravel and sand. Since that was settled way back in 2006, it's a mystery why no action was taken.

Magsaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal, an RTI pioneer, is, however, celebrating the success of the RWA. "This should get the people of Delhi motivated to file RTIs, make complaints to the anti-corruption branch and not just sit back and criticize the agencies for inaction."

Capital shame: 3 MCD engineers held for substandard road-Delhi-Cities-The Times of India

[karira]

As reported in hindustantimes.com on 13 September 2008:
More heads may roll for bad roads- Hindustan Times

More heads may roll for bad roads

The arrest of three engineers of Delhi’s civic agency on Thursday may only be the tip of the iceberg. The arrests were made in connection with the construction of a sub-standard road in Old Rajinder Nagar.

Sources in the Anti-corruption Branch said on Friday that 15 more engineers with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are likely to be arrested in the case. The Anti-corruption Branch is also planning to book the contractor.

10 more engineers were arrested in connection with other cases and embezzlement of funds.

“There are nearly 15 engineers, that includes junior engineers and assistant engineers, who will be arrested soon. Our next target is the contractor who had a major role to play in construction of substandard roads. We will book him for criminal conspiracy,” said a senior official.

Many MCD engineers have already taken anticipatory bail.

The Vigilance Department of the civic agency confirmed that they too are investigating into a number of cases against their engineers for using inferior quality material for construction of roads. “We have received some complaints and are investigating the cases,” said an official.

“The road from Salwan Public School to School Marg was repaired but there are still many roads in our area that are in a bad condition. I have filed a complaint with the MCD. If they fail to take action, we will have to use the RTI once again,” said SP Gupta, who had filed an RTI in 2004 after he found the road from Salwan Public School to School Marg in Old Rajinder Nagar in a very bad condition.

Driving in the city is a nightmarish experience because of the potholes but the civic agency has adopted a lenient attitude towards the contractors.

As many as 42 roads constructed in the last five years have worn out before the warranty period, but the civic body has blacklisted only four contractors till date. And, only 21 contractors were issued notices to reconstruct the roads.

“We have blacklisted one contractor this year for constructing bad roads. We have also served notices to contractors in the past for using sub-standard material,” said MCD spokesman Deep Mathur.

Meanwhile, the MCD engineers will hold indefinite dharna to protest against the arrest of their colleagues.

The engineers held protests outside the MCD commissioner’s office on Friday demanding intervention in the matter and immediate relief for their colleagues.

“The arrests are politically motivated. The Delhi Government has targeted mainly junior engineers,” said AP Khan, general secretary, Forum for MCD engineers. He said the MCD has its own vigilance system and, if required, the officials should be tried by the civic body’s Anti corruption Bureau.

MCD Commissioner KS Mehra maintained that the engineers have to serve a notice before going on a strike. “They can’t go on a strike just like that and a proper channel has to be followed,” said Mehra.