Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Wednesday registered a case against several officers of the J&K Housing Board Srinagar for alleged procurement of material on exorbitant rates and use of substandard material in projects of construction of buildings from 2015 to 2017.
“ACB registered a case under FIR 27/2020 against the officers, officials of J&K Housing Board Srinagar on the outcome of a JSC conducted by the Bureau into the allegations of procurement of material on exorbitant rates and use of substandard material in projects of construction of the buildings undertaken and progressed ahead by J&K Housing Board Unit 2nd, Srinagar without tendering process during the period 2015- 2017,” ACB spokesperson said in a statement.
“It has surfaced that at one project in Srinagar, the excavated earth to the tune of 11756 cubic metres has been shown transported to a dumping site, but the dumping site has not been identified by providing any site plan etc. The dumping site is located at a far distance from the project site, but same has been shown located at minimum distance. The auction or sale of excavated material could have generated revenue for government as such wrongful loss has been caused to the State Exchequer,” the statement said.
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“Further the purported carriage charges of the material from excavated site to dumping site have been billed to the tune huge amounts. The billed cost amounting on account of non-existent levelling of unknown dumping site has been done. This has resulted in loss to State exchequer with consequent undue benefit to the public servants.”
“The executing agency has failed to provide any contour map or cross section depicting natural surface prior to excavation to support their claim of excavating a quantity of 11756 cubic meters of earth. The approximate loss worked out at one of the sites on account of excavation of earth work is about Rs. 15 Lakh. The loss is likely to go up when the investigation of the case will move further,” it said.
