Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 31: A multi-crore Tar scam has surfaced in the Public Works Department (PWD) where the Government had supplied Tar (Asphalt) to the contractors for various allotted works but the officials in majority of the cases had failed to deduct the amounts from the bills of the contractors.
The practice of supplying Tar by the Department to the contractors for the allotted works in the PWD had been going for two decades in all the PWD divisions of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The practice was, however, stopped in 2019 when the stores which were providing Tar, Steel, cement and timber to contractors for the allotted Government works were closed.
Every year Tar worth crores of rupees had been supplied to the contractors by the Department in advance for the allotted works. The equivalent amount was supposed to be deducted from the bills of these contractors which in majority of the cases had not been done.
The Department had released the payments in full to these contractors in some cases without deducting the cost of Tar supplied to them.
The Crime Branch and Anti-Corruption Bureau of Jammu and Kashmir Police had been probing the complaint against the officials of the R&B.
An alert note (No. CBK/ME-36/18/4189-90 dated 10-03-2021) was also issued to the Principal Secretary R&B J&K by the Crime Brach regarding deductions of cost of Tar issued to contractors. ACB official said that due to the connivance of officials of the PWD with contractors the cost of Tar at times was not deducted from contractors’ bills which amounts to crores in all divisions of J&K.
The Department was also issuing excess Tar to the contractors for the allotted works and later the excess Tar was not being returned by the contractors to the department. This practice along with non-deduction of the Tar amount was going on for decades.
After the complaints in the Crime Branch in some divisions, the excess Tar was recovered from some contractors while in other cases it is still pending as the cases are decade old.
The Crime Branch in 2019 summoned several officials of the PWD regarding the non-recovery of Tar amount from the contractors and recovery of excess Tar. In some cases, it was recovered after that but crores of rupees are still pending with these contractors.
An official of the CB said on the condition of anonymity said that as per records in one of the divisions half of the contractors had taken entire payments and Tar amount has not been deducted. “Some contractors have payments pending with the PWD and their Tar liabilities are also huge”, he added.
Chief Engineer, R&B, Kashmir, Rafiq Ahmad Rafiq told Excelsior that he has no exact details on the issue but there must be some exceptions. “We don’t have such issues now. There are also pending payments of these contractors with the department”, he added.
Chief Engineer, R&B, Jammu, Manzoor Hussain, told Excelsior that he has no knowledge of the issue. “Then the DDOs will be responsible”, he added.
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