Principal Secy seeks details from CEs on Tar scam
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Feb 9: As the Principal Secretary Public Works Department (PWD), Shalinder Kumar, has sought details about the Tar (Asphalt) supplied to the contractors and the liabilities, the Director Stores PWD has stated that there is an outstanding of over Rs 14 crores with seven Engineering Divisions in Kashmir.
The Chief Engineers of PWD Kashmir and Jammu have been asked by the Principal Secretary to furnish the details of Tar supplied to the contractors in various Engineering Divisions across Jammu and Kashmir from 2011 onwards and recoveries made.
The details were sought by the Principal Secretary after Excelsior last week reported about multi-crore Tar scam in PWD where no recoveries were made from 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.
The Chief Engineers have asked the Engineering Divisions to furnish details of the quantity of Tar supplied to the contractors and recoveries made from them so far.
The Director Stores Procurement department in response to letter seeking details about the Tar supplied to various Engineering Divisions has stated (Letter No. DSP/ 518-22 dated 04-02-2022) that there is a liability of over Rs 14 cores with seven Engineering divisions of Kashmir.
It stated the Executive Engineer Left River Circular Division Srinagar has an outstanding of Rs 1, 01, 80, 550 against Bitumen issued upto 2015; Executive Engineer R&B Construction Division Ist Srinagar has outstanding of Rs 2, 88, 45, 447 against Bitumen issued upto 2015; Executive Engineer Project Circular Construction Division Ist Srinagar has an outstanding of Rs 97, 81, 635 against Bitumen issued upto 2015; Executive Engineer R&B Division Baramulla has an outstanding of Rs 45, 15, 131 against Bitumen issued upto 2017; Executive Engineer Muffsil R&B Division Budgam has an outstanding of Rs 6, 10, 29, 288 against Bitumen issued upto 2015; Executive Engineer R&B Division Shopian has an outstanding amount of Rs 2, 40, 29, 816 against Bitumen issued upto 2015 and Executive Engineer R&B Division Pulwama has an outstanding amount of Rs 35, 01, 400 against Bitumen issued upto 2015.
The Director has requested the Chief Engineer Kashmir division to direct the divisions to clear the outstanding amount at the earliest.
An official said that the PWD has not only procured Bitumen from the Stores only but the Engineering divisions were also directly procuring it from the SICOP and supplying it to the contractors.
He said that the Principal Secretary no doubt has sought details of Tar supplied and outstanding amount but Chief Engineers are seeking details from those very officers who are involved in non-recovery of Tar. “The Government should have formed an independent committee to look into the matter”, he said.
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