Congress attacks Meghalaya govt over Saubhagya scheme

Shillong, Sep 4 (IANS) The opposition Congress in Meghalaya on Tuesday attacked the National People's Party-led government for violating terms and conditions in the bidding document in the allotment of the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna - Saubhagya scheme for providing universal household electrification in the state.

"This scheme has resulted into a deep scam because of the criminal conspiracy of all those people involved in the government. There has been a deep conspiracy to ultimately engage in the scam because of the greed of the people who are in power," Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma told journalists.

Alleging that the terms and conditions in the bidding documents of Saubhagya scheme were manipulated and designed to ensure that they can favour pre-identified bidders, Sangma said: "The circumstantial evidence of this allegation is that you look at the amount of the rate at which the award of contract was given."

"The award of contract is more than 50 per cent of the scheduled rate or of the total estimated project cost which was based on the Detailed Project report prepared by Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL)," he said.

Claiming that work allotment has been given at more than 50 per cent of the actual cost reflected as per the Schedule of Rates (SOR), the senior Congress legislator added: "Many projects under other programmes are in the process of implementation at the old rates with the same rates, projects are still being implemented on the ground."

Pointing out the grey areas in the process of payment, Sangma said, "For the first time in the history of Meghalaya, the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of MeECL has sent a letter to the concerned official at the level of the Sub Divisional Officer to prepare the bill and submit directly to the Chief Engineer MeECL distribution and pass the bill without allowing it to go through the normal process."

The opposition leader pointed out that another development that has taken place when the "manipulative tender" was on there was an aggrieved party who went to the High Court, but after a certain period of time that petitioner withdrew the case.

"Now has the petitioner just happily did it or was somehow influenced to withdraw," Sangma said.

He also pointed towards the sudden removal of the CMD of the MeECL for the first time which has not happened in the recent years in the state.