Contractors allege LIT bias in Rs1.5-crore work allocation

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, January 3

Contractors enlisted with the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) and other government departments are up in arms against the Trust authorities for allocation of road construction works worth nearly Rs 1.5 crore to an “ineligible” but “well-connected” contractor against norms.

Sore over favouritism and possible “connivance” of certain senior officials of the Trust, the contractors planned a dharna at the Trust office today, which was, however, called off on the intervention of LIT Chairman Subhash Verma.

Vipin Jain, a contractor, who led the protesting contractors (owning hot mix plants), during the meeting with the LIT officials, alleged that the Trust officials had allocated a number of road construction projects worth around Rs 1.5 crore to a particular firm which did not own a hot mix plant as was required under the conditions for eligibility.

“The said contractor had misrepresented the facts at the time of offering bids for road works and the concerned officials of the engineering branch of the Trust did not verify the credentials of the contractor before allotting works to him as the owners of the construction agency claimed to be politically connected,” Jain said.

He further apprised the Trust Chairman of the fact that the firm had made similar misrepresentations while offering bids for road construction works to the Municipal Corporation and action had already been initiated by the MC authorities against it for securing road construction works by making false claims.

The contractors demanded that all tenders awarded to the said construction agency on the basis of wrong documents provided during the bidding process be cancelled and the works be either allocated to next bidder owning a hot mix plant or else these be recalled. They said if the Trust authorities failed to take action against the ineligible contractor, they would continue their agitation and might even seek legal recourse if warranted.

After meeting the contractors, Dr Verma said he had called for a detailed report from the engineering branch and if any road construction works were allotted to any agency in violation of the norms and laid down conditions, necessary action would be taken as per the rules. “The Trust might also initiate action against officials concerned or employees if any irregularity is detected in allotment of road construction works,” he added.