The Chief Minister is slient, but the Director of Loktak Development Authority (LDA) is not. The LDA Director has admitted that the Rs 224 crore work for management of Phumdi in Loktak Lake was awarded to K-Pro Infra Works Limited, which was the lone bidder of the tender which was floated in both the national and local newspapers. What was not explained in the LDA clarification was why the tern ‘phumdi’ was explained in the tender notice, why the lone tender was accepted and whether the firm ‘K-Pro’ had the requisite qualifications or experience to be accepted as the agency for management of phumdi in the Loktak Lake? In fact nobody had the experience of management of phumdi in Loktak Lake or for that matter how the phumdis could be managed? The awarding of phumdi management on trail basis to a company involved in the Thoubal dam a year ahead of the actual work being awarded to K-Pro, which became a sister concern is a matter of debate. K-Pro was a company which came into being after the tender for phumdi management was floated. How it suddenly became a sister concern of Progressive Constructions Ltd (PCL) is being questioned in certain circles. PCL is a company which is being listed as a fraudulent company in the books of World bank and it is being owned by an MP of Andhra Pradesh KS Rao, who himself is a controversial figure in Congress circles. Besides the fact that, a lone bidder has been given the contract work flouting CPWD norms wherein a minimum of three bidder are required for award of work K-Pro has been given mobilization expenses of 10 percent without any interest whereas the CPWD regulations say that mobilization expenses could be given on simple interest. So, it is established from these facts that undue favour had been given in the award of the work to a completely unknown company which had no previous experience of such work and that mobilization expenses had been given without interest. Now, the main question on the lips of everyone is that who are shareholders of K-Pro and who are promoters of this relatively unknown company. And why does it have such an enormous clout to win a multi crore project from Manipur government? Just as PCL has a powerful promoter in KS Rao, does K-Pro have a promoter so powerful that he or she has the clout to influence the Manipur government or circumvent the rules and regulations of CPWD? The most interesting part in the whole scam is that the state Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh seems to be taking undue interest in the award of work and every proceeding the project? The Chief Minister bis the one who has proposed for awarding the contract of phumdi to the lone bidder and for waiving of interest for the mobilization expenses. In fact, the members of the earlier cabinet and the ministers and officers concerned are to be blamed for these irregularities. But one must remember that they were part of the bandwagon and it was the leader who must be brought to task. The recent clarification issued by the LDA authority has practically admitted all the wrongdoings like awarding of the contract to a lone bidder. But, the bypassing of certain procedures and regulations cannot be condoned for the mere fact that the Planning Commission had been giving pressure for expediting the project. The Planning Commission did not tell them to circumvent rules and to award the work to a lone bidder or to give mobilization expenses free of interest to the firm. So, the need of the hour is to ask the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate into the scam and bring to justice those persons involved in the scam however powerful they be.
