MC accused of favouring firm for HRIDAY project

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 16

The AAP district unit has accused Municipal Corporation (MC) officials of unduly favouring a private builder in executing the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) project by “twisting” the norms.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Suresh Sharma, member of the AAP political affairs committee, said the MC provided them a letter on March 31, 2017, received from the builder, seeking extension of the time period for executing the project. He pointed out that the said letter contained GST number on the letterhead. “The GST was introduced in July 2017, so how did the company come up with a GST number five months in advance?” he questioned.

He said it was apparent that MC officials inserted the letter in the backdate after the party filed an RTI query.

He said the private builder concerned was given two contracts, including one of Rs 50.5 crore and another of Rs 1.17 crore under the HRIDAY scheme. He said both contracts were granted on a single bid, enough to point out the nexus between the MC officials and the contractor.

“As per the terms of Rs 50.5 crore tender, which was opened on September 2016, the project was to be executed in six months, which means by February 2017. The work under the project is yet to be finished,” he said.

He alleged that it was the same firm that was given the contract worth Rs 400 crore of the heritage road leading to the Golden Temple and construction of Zang-E-Azadi Memorial at Kartarpur Sahib. The NDA Government had incorporated the holy city for the development of its tourist sites under the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) in 2015.

Leaders of the party said said a thorough probe should be launched into the whole episode.