CPM leader questions awarding of water supply project to pvt firm

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Shimla, March 24

Ex-Deputy Mayor, Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Tikender Panwar has objected the decision of the Shimla Jal Prabandan Nigam limited (SJPNL) to issue a letter of award to the Suez India company for the proposed project of providing 24×7 water supply in the town and has warned to challenge the decision in the court.

In a letter written to the Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Panwar stated that this decision had been made in contravention to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines and strongly smacks of underhand deals to favour the aforesaid company.

He said the award had been given bypassing the Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organisation’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) price which was of Rs 470 crore and now the same stands at over Rs 800 crore.

“Despite our repeated reminders exposing the connivance of officials and the aforesaid company, the SJPNL decided to go ahead with the award,” he added.

“Since inception we had pointed out that the contract itself was flawed and had been tailor-made to suit just one company,” said Panwar.

“Now, an emergency meeting of the Cabinet on March 14, and a day before the announcement of the model code of conduct for the general elections, the matter was decided in an unprecedented haste, even bypassing the strong objections made by Shimla Mayor who is the largest stakeholder in the entire project,” he said.