IMPHAL, Aug 11 : The question now is, why has the whip not been cracked. After The Sangai Express ran a story under the heading, ‘Anomalies plague highway construction work’ in the July 27 edition, it was clear that M/s Raghava Construction, a Hyderabad based work agency had not deposited any money as Bank Guarantee.
Instead it has come to light that on May 18, 2015, the office of the Additional Chief Engineer -1 of the State Public Works Department had received a written intimation from the office of the Manipur Rural Bank that an amount of Rs 1,36,45,126; Rs 2,23,28,314; Rs 1,11,24,276 and Rs 1,76,75,102 was deposited as bank guarantees on May 12, 2015.
Talking to The Sangai Express a well placed source said that on further verification and investigation, Manipur Rural Bank negated the earlier letter and wrote to the Superintending Engineer of the National Highways Circle, PWD, Manipur that no such bank Bank Guarantees were issued by the bank and no such record is available in the bank’s system.
The communication from the bank to the SE of PWD was sent on July 5 this year, said the source and questioned why has no action been taken up against the defaulters till date.
After The Sangai Express published the expose’ on July 27 this year, the Superintending Engineer of PWD filed an FIR against M/s Raghava Constructions and Manipur Rural Bank.
The FIR was filed before the Officer-Charge of Imphal police station on August 8 this year, said the source.
However even after a lapse of three days there is nothing to suggest that some action has been taken up against the defaulters.
What is stopping the Government from cracking the whip against the defaulters, asked the source and added that the matter cannot be allowed to simply fade.
The complaint in the FIR described the offence of the defaulters as ‘forgery for purpose of cheating, using a forged document and cheating dishonestly inducing delivery of property.’
The amount was meant for different works including Mao-Maram-Imphal and Imphal-Moreh section of NH-2.
